I ran up to Derek and to my surprise, no one stopped me. Dropping down to my knees, I cradled his face in my hands. I ran my hands through is hair and noticed it seemed wet. I slowly took my hand away from his head and the fresh blood that now covered my fingers made my chest tighten.

He didn't deserve any of this to happen to him, and at that reality, I felt my blood  boiling over until my mind was foggy and the only thing that was clear was the fact that I had to get Derek, myself and Jacob out of here.

I stood up and took a look around the room. The only people I could see were Jack, Isten and the man that was guarding the door to begin with. The man I didn't know seemed pretty scrawny and didn't look like he'd really know how to fight so he was the first person I'd targetted.

I ran at him, a heat travelling down my body as I got nearer and nearer.

Even after the first blow to his head, the anger in me failed to calm down so instead of slowing down, I sent a quick flurry of punches down on his nose.

Stepping back quickly, I felt satisfied as he went to touch his now bleeding nose and I didn't miss the way his eyes gleamed with anger and a slight trace of fear.

Closing in on him again, I raised my fist but before it made contact with his face, he pushed my arm away in a block and tried to throw a punch of his own.

The predictable move had me almost at laughter as I grabbed his fist and twisted it infront of me, rewarding me with a scream from the man himself, before I ducked and flung him over me. Something must have broken or at least fractured because as soon as he made contact with the ground, he stopped moving but the loud crack that came from him still resounded around the room.

Looking around again, I noticed Derek once again but this time, there was a degree of pride in his eyes as he looked over at me. I smiled at him in return.

Turning my head, I contorted my face into a scowl and ran towards Jack but before I could reach him, Isten jumped out infront of him.

"Little girl, careful what you do now." Isten warned.

"Get out of my way, Isten." I said through gritted teeth. The only thing I could place my focus on now was the smug smirk that lay across Jack's face as he watched me get to him.

I decided that I was going to knock that smirk right off his face.

Ducking under Isten's arm, I charged towards Jack and gave him an uppercut to his face. The pain in his face as my fist made impact still, however, didn't contain my bloodlust but before I could really give him what he deserved, I felt someone pull me back.

Once again, Isten warned me  "Girl, I'm giving you your last warning. After this, there's nothing I can do to help you."

"Just take her down, Isten!" Jack roared from infront of my and I couldn't help but smirk at the bruise that was already starting to form on Jack's face.

I probably shouldn't have done that though because next thing I know, Jack's right up in my face, raising a fist of his own.

I'm not letting this old man ruin my face forever, oh no.

So with all the upper body strength I had strengthened over the years, I picked my feet off the floor as my arms stayed twisted within Isten's and with a powerful kick, I watched Jack double over in pain as he grabbed his crotch.

Shouldn't have tested me, old man.

As Jack stood there, trying to gain whatever he had left of his dignity, I thought of ways to get out of Isten's hold however, then again, he did keep me from trying to hurt Jack. He was the enemy aswell, however nice he had been to me.

I had to be honest, I felt quite confident in myself right about now because I'd managed to knock out a fully grown man and make another grown man literally bow down before me.

I felt like a queen.

With this newfound confidence, I mustered up enough energy to jump up, still attached to Isten, and kick backwards so that he was forced to let go of me. I didn't waste any time on celebrating my victory however, because I knew that if anyone knew how to fight, it would be the bodyguard himself.

I ran to the middle of the basement so as to give me a bit of space but if I'm being honest with you, I didn't expect to see his fist in my face so quickly. It happened so quickly in fact, that I hadn't had enough time to register what had actually happened before I had hit the floor, knocked out cold.

--

I felt myself in the - now all to familiar - restraint of rope. My feet were now tied to a chair leg each and my arms were securely fastened behind my back. There was no way for me to wiggle my way out of this one.

Raising my head, I felt my heart skip a beat as I gazed straight in front of me into the eyes of Derek himself. There was so much pride in his eyes that I felt my heart skip a beat as I looked at him.

His eyes told me everything I needed to know. He had forgiven me, it was obvious. Ther was no more hostility or anger in his eyes but all of it had been replaced with pride and kindness, however, there was still an instant where his eyes flickered into emptiness.

Something was still bugging him.

But before I could ask what was wrong, the basement door opened and Jack and Isten came  down the stairs. The look in Jack's eye could only be described as utterly disgusting as he took in both mine and Derek's helplessness.

He came closer and closer to me and I rocked about in my chair to try and get him to go away, but this only seemed to encourage him as he came closer to me.

He raised his hand and placed it on my cheek but then he all of a sudden raised his hand and slapped me across the face.

"That was for Tanner."

He did it again.

"That was for Isten."

And once more.

"That was for me."

The force he had slapped me was sure to leave a mark and I could already feel the burning pain making itself evident on my face.

I hissed and spat at him and this only seemed to make his smirk deepen as he said
"You're going to regret having done that, little miss."

I didn't know what he meant until he pulled out a little object.

A small, but deadly object.

Unsheathing his pocket knife, he walked up to Derek and cut off his gag.

"I swear if you touch her------ AGGGHHHH." Derek screamed as Jack sliced open his top and made a shallow cut in his chest.

"I'd recommend you to be quiet if you don't want this to end too quickly."

Worry overtook me as I watched the now open wound on Derek's chest spill small amounts of blood over his once clean top.

"Jack. JACK stop, stop please don't hurt him."

"And why shouldn't I, Cordero, you've given me plenty of reasons to."

"You came down here to ask me questions, not torture my friend, get on with what you cam to do."

"What makes you think I can't both ask you my questions and torture your friend?"

"The fact that he is your only leverage now. With Connor gone, if you carry on hurting him, I wont let anything up."

Annoyance drifted over his face as he realised that once again, I was right.

"Ok then, let's make a deal, you only get one offer though."

I nodded, if it meant that Derek could get away without getting too hurt, I could live with that.

"Everytime I ask you a question, you have to answer honestly. If I feel that you aren't telling the truth, even slightly, I will add a new cut to his collection until I hear you tell me the truth."

I sat for a few seconds before locking eyes with Derek and whispering a 'sorry'. If I wanted to get us out of here alive, some sacrifices were in order.

"Ok."

"Great, lets get started then."

I looked back at Derek but he didn't look scared, no, he didn't look scared at all.

Instead, he looked calm, almost hopeful.

I wish I could have been as strong as him, but I knew that I was weak, I'd never be as strong as the man sitting, tied up and bound in front of me.

"First question. Do you know a man called Esteban Mendez."

I though back to what Jacob had told me about Esteban, that he was dangerous and he was seemingly the gang leader of Genesis.

"All I know is that he's dangerous. I've heard rumours of him being in a gang, maybe him even being gang leader, but that's it."

"Wrong answer." he chirped as he slashed Derek's arm, thankfully not that deep. I saw pain in his eyes but the hopefulness from before was still there.

"I don't know anything else about him!"

"Think, think hard Maya, remember that I could end Derek's life with just a slahs of my knife in the right place."

For the first time, solid fear rocked through me as I saw the red of Derek's blood run along the blade before making it's way to the floor in a single, crimson droplet.

"Don't you think I'd tell you by now if I knew anything about him?"

"No." he replied as he slashed Derek's other arm and this time, I heard a small whimper from Derek but his eyes were still hopeful.

How were they still hopeful?

Everything was going to crap.

Yet still, his brown orbs showed that he was still hopeful.

"One more chance Maya. What do you know about Esteban Mendez?" he asked, yet this time, he asked it in a more firm tone, his voice getting louder as he asked the question.

"I. Don't. Know." I growled and as a result of my action, Jack added another slice to Derek's chest and this time, it looked deeper than the last one.

"God damn it Maya, you're not making this easy for me."

He then got up and walked away from us and called Isten down to the basement. After closing slamming the door shut, I heard the voices outside getting louder and louder as there seemed to be quite the heated discussion going on outside.

"Maya, I just---"

"Shh, Derry, tell me in a minute." I said, only noticing that I had used his childhood nickname again for the first time in many years.

From outside the door, I only heard snippets though.

"The girl--- he needs---- she can't be hurt---- that's going against orders." I heard who seemed to be Isten.

"Esteban---- Genesis' leader---- she can't find out or it'll derail the whole plan." Jack seemed to retaliate.

I presumed the girl in question was me and as they opened the door to come back in, it was obvious that whatever Isten had said, it persuaded Jack to stand down because instead of coming back in to torture Derek and interrogate me, he just started at us for a few seconds before calling Tanner in and telling him to keep guard of the door, also mentioning the fac tthat Isten was always close by if back-up was needed.

I tried to decode what they were talking about behind the door but the snippets of what I did hear only seemed to confuse me further.

Why the hell was I being dragged into gang related issues when the gang life wasn't one I'd even had to think about?

However, without knowing it, Jack had now given me some of the most useful information I could get right now. He'd just given me my first clue.

My first clue to finding out what the heck was going on.

--------

a/n:  So, I guess this is where the plot starts to thicken.

Who thinks they know why Maya is involved with whatever's going on, I'll be surprised if anyone figured it out already ;)

As for now, I need you guys to vote on what ship name sounds best for Maya and Derek because, if you haven't guessed it already, Derek is another ship that's getting ready for departure!

Choose by commenting on the inline comments:

Marek

Merek

Daya

Deraya

Oh, and, please give up a second of your time just to hit that little star, I would appreciate it so, so much.

Other than that, I hope you have a good day, my lovelies <3

Lolaalvilivi