Chapter Text
Shouting. There was shouting.
“Entangle!”
“Ron, watch out!”
“They cast a sleep spell on the kids!”
It was a fight. Faint sounds of punches and weapons clashing and spells being thrown.
“Erin! Walter! Get- AH!” A spell cast.
“Darryl!”
“Get the kids out of here! We’ll find you later!”
Another spell.
Everything was quiet.
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-
-
Lark was the first to wake up.
They were all around a small campfire, Erin was talking with Walter a few feet away, too far away to hear.
“Brother,” Lark shook his twin until he woke up. “Brother, something is wrong.”
“What? What’s wrong?”
“We’re somewhere new and there is no sign of father.”
Sparrow quickly sat up and looked around. They were all in a large, wooded clearing. The sun had just begun to rise, and the grass was still damp with morning dew. He looked at his brother in confusion and opened his mouth to speak before a loud voice cut him off.
“Dad!” The shout drew their attention to the boy behind them. Grant was looking around frantically, his hand gripping tightly around his ax. “Dad, where are you? Shit! We have to go back! I heard the fight and- and he got hurt!”
Grant’s shouts quickly got Erin and Walter’s attention. They exchanged glances as they walked toward the kids.
“What’s going on? Where are we?” The other three boys were now sleepily sitting up, looking around in confusion.
“It’s fine, you’re ok, just calm do-” Erin spoke softly before Grant interrupted her sentence.
“It’s not fine! I heard the fighting! Where’s my dad?!”
“Our dads are gone?”
“Where are they? What happened?”
“I heard the fight too! Are they ok?”
The kids erupted into chaos and worry, all shouting over each other and yelling questions at Erin and Walter.
“Guys- Ok everyone plea- Just let me- EVERYONE SHUT UP!”
The group fell silent at Erin’s outburst, their worried expressions all focused on her.
“I know you’re all worried and confused but I need you to listen to me. I’m trying to keep you all safe,” she said in a quiet, calm voice, trying to ease the tension and chaos from before. Walter had started making breakfast while Erin spoke to the kids in front of her.
“The Omega Daddies ambushed us while we were sleeping. It seems like they were just trying to sneak you all out before we noticed but we were able to wake up before they got you. Obviously, a fight broke out.”
“Then why didn’t we wake up? We would’ve noticed them trying to take us,” Nick spoke up.
“One of them cast a sleep spell on you. You wouldn’t wake up until the spell wore off.”
“That still doesn’t explain where our fathers are.” Lark and Sparrow crossed their arms.
A somber expression fell over Erin’s face as she looked at the young boys. “The Omega Daddies had a lot of reinforcements; it was impossible to get the upper hand. They... Your dads knew that we couldn’t beat them this time and they didn’t want to lose you all again. So, I was able to use a spell to get us far away from there. But...”
“But? Why is there a ‘but’? You said you got us out of there so where are they?” Grant was practically shouting again as he got more and more agitated.
“But they stayed back to give us time to get away. They told me to get you away from the fight, so I did.”
The group once again erupted into shouts and protests and pleas to go back. Grant looked as though he was close to tears, gripping his hand ax. Terry Jr was pacing in a circle, anxiously. Lark’s fists were clenched as he demanded to go back. Sparrow’s face was rife with concern for his missing father. Nick couldn’t hide his fear and worry as he pleaded to go back for the dads.
Erin could see all of this, but she had to keep them safe. That was her goal. “Guys, please! I’m sorry, I really am but we can’t go back!”
“She’s right...” A quiet voice from the back of the crowd spoke up. Paeden had his arms wrapped around himself like a hug, a petrified look permeating his normally confident expression. “We can’t go back, or they’ll get us... They- They'll get us, and we’ll never see our dads again and- and- and-”
Walter walked away from the campfire to Paeden and pulled the young boy into a tight hug. “It’s ok, you’re not going back. We’re going to keep you safe. All of you.”
“But we can’t just leave them! They could still be in danger!” Terry Jr protested.
Erin sighed. She never really had to work with kids before and she was not prepared for how stubborn these kids were. “Listen, I know this is scary and you're worried about your dads, but we can’t go running back into a fight that is already over. It’s been hours, the Omega Daddies will be long gone by now, and probably have someone watching the old campsite in case we try and go back. What we need to focus on is finding your dads. If they made it out, they won’t be able to find us on their own.”
“Erin and I were talking about a way to find them. She thinks she knows someone who can help.” Walter was still holding Paeden but had loosened his grip so he could face the others. The young boy was calming down from his panicked state but clung to Walter, clearly still on edge from the night’s events.
“Yes, as I was telling Walter, I have an old friend, a powerful witch, who probably has a way to get us to your dads. Best case scenario, your dads are just lost in the woods with a few battle scars.”
“And the worst case?” Nick asked, looking up at her with anxiety and fear in his eyes.
Erin knew what the worst situation would be. But she couldn’t just tell these kids that it’s very likely their fathers are dead, and they’re stuck here forever, constantly on the run from the Omega Daddies. She put a comforting hand on Nick’s shoulder and looked around the crowd at each of the kids in front of her. “Worst case... Worst case, they most likely would be keeping your dads somewhere to use them as leverage to get to you. If that happens, then we’ll get them back, whatever it takes.”