I Spy with My Little Eye {Eckhart} {M}

[Celegwen]

"Bring him inside," Teryn said, not answering the boy. He knew that he had to protect Melissa from Hildegarde, otherwise she would be taken out. Despite how much of a pain she was, Melissa was also the best assassin Teryn had encountered.

Dragging the struggling boy inside, GG and Goldie held tightly to him. It was shockingly difficult to tie him, but they knew it was necessary. Once Terrence's ankles and wrists had been bound together inside, Jezebel glared at Teryn with Lizzie sitting next to her. GG's eyes flicked between everyone in the room, his breathing unsteady and anxious.

The little girl looked at Terrence in confusion, while Jezebel walked over to Teryn. "Don't you dare make him use his power," she said in a quiet scold that everyone could probably hear.

"Butterfly, I need him to use his power," the man said. "I almost never make him use it, but now is necessary."

Jezebel looked at GG. "You don't have to do this."

"He does need to do this! How else-"

"Than you're killing hi-!" She spat at Teryn, suddenly cut off. They looked to the side and saw Lizzie curled up on the couch with her eyes squeezed closed and hands over her ears. Teryn sighed, remembering Lizzie's problem with loud fights. He waved his hand at GG to comfort the girl so that they could speak again.

[Eckhart_Von_Musel]

Spider ignored his poorly veiled (and entirely baseless) threat, and Terrence was dragged into the brick house. Upon getting him inside, the elf and the boy who had tackled him sat him in a chair and attempted to bind his arms and legs. It took them a few tries- they were being oddly gentle at first- but they finally got Terrence in a position were he couldn't escape.

Terrence watched on as Jezebel and Spider proceeded to argue about whether or not the blonde boy should use his powers. The gears in his head began to turn. "So, he can die if he uses his abilities too frequently? Alright, I can use that." He shot a quick glance at Ladybug, who had curled up into a ball on the couch. "Let's make this guy feel like a dick."

Terrence stared up at Spider, a look of disgust on his face. "Wait, so do you just not care about his wellbeing then? Is he just a tool to you?" His eyes narrowed. "Lady Hildegarde would never treat a Friend that way..."

[Celegwen]

If he could speak, Teryn would've ripped Terrence a new asshole. He looked at GG and gently shook his head. GG gave Lizzie a hug, whispering to her that everything was fine and nothing bad would happen. The girl walked upstairs, followed by Jezebel. Teryn felt his voice return to him. "Moth," he said, jerking his head toward the door, "out. Now."

Goldie glared at Terrence, before slamming the door shut behind her. She breathed shakily, wanting to drive her fist through the boy's skull.

GG walked over to Teryn in front of the chair Terrence was tied to. The young man took a breath and leaned against the wall, looking at Terrence. "He doesn't make me do anything," GG said. "I believe in him. I've studied the leaders of every major gang in current existence, and the fact that you would compare this man to the blonde whore you work for is disgusting."

Teryn walked behind Terrence, his fingers working quickly to weave a web between himself and the boy. GG stepped forward, an uncharacteristic passion in his eyes, and smirked. "You're...sixteen? Seventeen?" The young man continued. "Damn... Hildegarde starts young... She was fucking you in the cradle, wasn't she?" A grin crossed his lips, as he crouched in front of Terrence with his elbows resting on his legs and hands folded. "What's it like? Probably throwing a sausage down an empty alley... That's how she keeps all her Friends, huh?"

[Eckhart_Von_Musel]

Terrence smirked. "At least she's not as loose as Jezebel."

[Celegwen]

I gave him my word he wouldn't be hurt, Teryn thought, his heart racing and mind suddenly flooded. I gave my word. You keep your word. Without your word, you're nothing. But no one would know if I broke it, except the people in the house. I can kill him, if I wanted... No!

Teryn whirled around, slamming his fist into the wall. The wall had a dent in it, and Teryn withdrew his hand. He was nearly positive that he had broken his hand, which was covered in blood and immediately bruised.

GG's grin disappeared, and he stayed quiet, glancing at Teryn and glaring at Terrence. He took a deep breath. "Did you tie him?" He asked softly. Teryn nodded slightly, and GG sighed. "These people are my family..." He peered slightly at the boy. "...Terrence." Standing up, the young man pulled over another chair, sitting opposite Terrence. "You've crossed the line, so I'm going to tear you to shreds."

[Eckhart_Von_Musel]

Terrence burst out into mocking, derisive laughter. "Hahahaha! Oh, I'm so sorry!" He grinned cruelly at the boy in front of him. "Didn't mean to hurt them! Honest! Us Friends would never dream of going after the families of our rivals!" The boy laughed again. "You've crossed the line, so I'm going to tear you to shreds!" he mimicked in a poor impression of his captor's voice. "God, you sound like a fucking joke."

Suddenly feeling dizzy, Terrence looked down to see that blood from his missing finger had begun to pool up on the floor. He blinked, then strained his neck to look at Spider. "Hey! You said you'd patch me up, right? Better do it before I die of blood loss!" The boy's gaze snapped back to his interrogator. "After all, tearing me to shreds will kill him, right? You don't want two dead teenagers on your hands."

[Celegwen]

Teryn pursed his lips, pulling a rag out and wrapping it a bit too tightly around Terrence's hand. He held the chair up with his body, aware that the boy clearly wasn't going to give up without a fight. Standing up again, he looked at GG. "Ant, forget it," he said softly. "This is going to push you too far."

"Spider, leave," GG said, his eyes not leaving Terrence.

"I said-"

"Walk the fuck away," the young man snapped, glaring at his boss. "You think I give a shit at this point?" He shook his head, rolling up his sleeves to reveal the black lines on his left arm. "This one session isn't going to kill me, so I'm not walking away until I have what I want." Teryn sat against the wall, not leaving the boys alone together but not stopping what would happen. Looking back to Terrence, GG's eyes faded to pure white. "Let's begin."

[Eckhart_Von_Musel]

Terrence winced as Spider bandaged his hand. He hadn't expected him to actually do it, and he wasn't happy about it. "Fuck! If I hadn't said anything, I'd have died before they could get more info out of me! Damnit!"

The boy smiled at Ant. "Ok! I'll go first!" he said enthusiastically. "We all think the bug codenames are lame. Seriously, you could have gone with big cats! Spider could be Lion, Wasp could be Jaguar, Ladybug could be Bobcat..." Terrence grinned. "And you could have been Serval! But nope! You chose bugs." He rolled his eyes. "Talk about poor taste. Why do you wanna be named after something that gets stepped on? Idiots."

[Celegwen]

"Taza..." GG said, completely ignoring Terrence's desperate insults. "The one who's been stepping in Fly's path for her business is Taza."

Teryn shook his head. "Go deeper," he said. "I don't care about Fly's business rival right now."

"Hildegarde's gang is built on friendship, Spider. I assume she'd be pretty upset if one were to go missing. And don't fight her head on. She's much too powerful: it would be suicide."

"Okay," Teryn said, standing. "That's enough."

"Not yet!" GG smirked. "So, you really are in love with the blonde slut." He chuckled. "That's a shame. She... She has a complicated relationship with her brother. Eckhart hasn't spoken to her in years."

Teryn grabbed GG's shoulder, snapping the young man out of his trance. He picked up GG's right hand, which was now completely covered in black lines. "I said it was enough." GG's heart started racing, as Teryn squeezed his shoulder with a tight frown. "You did really well."

[Eckhart_Von_Musel]

"You did fucking awful, Ant!" Terrence cut in. "I bet you don't even know what I know about you. That's what you should have looked for."

In reality, Terrence was rather shook up. Having your memories picked through wasn't a pleasant experience in the least, nor was your enemy learning about your secret crush. He had nothing else to loose however, so he tried to make what he assumed were his final moments defiant ones.

"And you!" he spat at Terrence. "Letting him put himself at risk! Some substitute father figure you are!"

[Celegwen]

"I can get more!" GG said, looking up at Teryn. "Just give me five minutes! I'll find out everything about him!"

Teryn shook his head. "Stop. We're done here. Go splash some cold water on your face or something. Just relax. I'm not letting you go any further with him."

GG stood up, glaring at Terrence and running up the stairs, two at a time. Teryn grabbed a knife from the table and walked behind the boy. He sighed, cutting through the ropes around his wrists and ankles.

He stood and took a step back. "Get out," he said simply. "You're free to go. I told you you wouldn't be hurt, so that's it. I don't want to see you again."

[Eckhart_Von_Musel]

Ant left, and Spider stepped forward. A wickedly sharp knife was in his hand, and Terrence closed his eyes in defeat. "Well, looks like that's it. I'm sorry Hildegarde." A few stray tears fell from the boys eyes. "At least I got to touch boobs before I died."

Terrence shut his eyes even tighter. "I never got to tell her how I feel. What if she forgets about me? I don't want- huh?"

Spider had cut his binds, freeing him. Terrence looked up at the man, wide eyed. "He's letting me go? Really? But... That's such a dumb decision! What is he thinking?" The boy subtlety began to pat himself down, as if to check if something had been planted on him. "Um... Do you..." Terrence gave the man a funny look as he slowly backed away. "God, I was so mean to them. Maybe I should apologize..."

Terrence stopped in front of the door, looking Spider up and down. "Uh... I-I'm sorry. J-just forget me, okay?" He smiled awkwardly for a moment, then darted out the door. He ran down the pathway and into the street, not looking back.

"That was an absolute disaster! Hildegarde is going to be so mad when she finds out!"

[Celegwen]

Teryn walked upstairs and saw Maria and Philip in a room. She sat in a chair, while he was asleep on the bed. He continued to see Jezebel and Lizzie in the little girl's room. The woman saw him and kissed Lizzie's forehead, before walking into the hall. "What happened?" She asked in a hushed whisper.

"Too much, and not enough," Teryn said, matching her volume. "It took a toll on the kid. I had to tear him away before he actually did kill himself."

"How far did it...?" She asked, dreading the answer.

Teryn just shook his head and wrapped his arms around Jezebel, his hand now throbbing. "He's going to get himself killed to impress me," Teryn said in a shaky breath, "and I don't think I can handle that."

Jezebel pushed away from Teryn with a soft smile. "I'll talk to GG," she said. "You have to find Phoenix and Goldie. Phoenix needs to be roped in before she does something else stupid, and Goldie needs you to talk her down. You and I both know that Blex lost his vision in his right eye, so she's going to be out for blood. And you have to do something about her disobeying you earlier."

The man took a deep breath, nodding slowly. He walked back downstairs and took the reins of the white horse GG never untacked. He mounted and started off in the direction Goldie and Blex had disappeared.

[Eckhart_Von_Musel]

It only took a few minutes before Spider showed up again. The hooded man galloped past Terrence on his horse, causing the boy a brief moment of panic. "Shit! No! Did he change his mind?" he thought, watching the man disappear into the distance. "He didn't see me, but he's looking. This keeps getting worse and worse..."

[Celegwen]

Teryn stopped outside of Goldie's house, dismounting and tying the horse to a stand outside. She walked around back and saw Goldie sitting with Blex. "He's blinded in his right eye," Goldie said without turning to look at the man. "That little bastard blinded him."

"I'm sorry," Teryn said. "Blex, how badly does it hurt?"

The gryphon huffed. "I'm fine. She's being dramatic."

Goldie pursed her lips, standing to face Teryn. "Where is he? I want my turn with him." Teryn simply shook his head, and Goldie started shaking. "You actually let him go? Teryn, you weak fucking soft asshole! Grow a pair and kill someone when they deserve it!"

"You are in no place to be scolding me!" He shouted. "You deliberately disobeyed me! I ordered you to keep on Melissa. She was top priority because she is after Hildegarde's brother! If he dies, I can promise that we will all be killed! She's fucking powerful, so I have a reason behind ordering you to do something!"

"This is so typical," she said, folding her arms. "You can't handle being wrong." Teryn's eyes widened in shock. "Yeah, that's right! You just can't deal with people thinking for themselves."

"I told you he'd be mad," Blex grumbled.

The elf woman laughed in defeat, shrugged dramatically. "Fine," she said. "Whatever. If we had continued after her, we'd be in worse shape than Philip. I made the right call."

Teryn bit his tongue. "This isn't over, but I have to find Fly."

"She's at the Black Candle tavern," Goldie said, sitting back down with Blex. "Doesn't want to be bothered." Teryn nodded and started back to his horse.

[Eckhart_Von_Musel]

Terrence had decided the best course of action was to stick to the back alleys. Even with his ability to go entirely unnoticed, the boy felt much safer hiding in the shadows. "I just gotta find a meeting point, then hold out for another day. I'll make it out of this as long as I can- eep!"

The sound of wings made the boy cower. Looking up slowly, he saw a dragon in the sky overhead, a human rider on it's back. "Great. I forgot about the dragons here. Maybe I'll luck out and one will eat the gryphon..."

It was then that the boy's stomach let out a low growl, reminding him that he still hadn't eaten at all that day. Letting out an annoyed sigh, Terrence made his way out of the alley. It was past noon at this point, and there was a lull in traffic. There was only one tavern within Terrence's sight from where he was- an expensive looking tavern called The Black Candle. "Well, I suppose that's better than nothing."

Upon entering, Terrence was struck by just how... atmospheric the tavern was. Black curtains covered the windows, with the scattered candles being the only source of light. "Gosh, this is like, some artisan place." he thought as he sat down at the dimly lit bar. "We don't have anything like this in Zantaric..."

[Celegwen]

Phoenix sat at the bar counter with four glasses already emptied. She threw back the fifth one, tear stains down her cheeks. The woman's left hand was in her already messed up hair, and the hefty man behind the counter stared at her with slight judgement.

The dark building helped to hide her despair from unwanted eyes, but the sudden light from the door wasn't a welcome feeling. She didn't look back. The man behind the bar didn't acknowledge the presence of the black haired boy who walked in, especially when the door swung open once again.

Teryn walked in, hood still up and saw the glowing orange strands in Phoenix's dark hair. He strolled up to the bar, putting two fingers up to the barkeep. Sitting next to Phoenix, Teryn took a breath. "I think an apology is in order," he said quietly.

She scoffed, glaring at him out of the corner of her eye. "If you actually think I'll even think of apologizing for-"

"I meant from me," the man said. She looked at him with wide eyes. "I never should've hit you. That was completely out of line, and I swear I'll never even think of doing anything like that again." Phoenix sighed in relief, wrapping her arms around his neck. Teryn gently pushed away from her. "I'm not making up with you, Phoenix. You're the reason Wasp is out right now hunting for Eckhart, and you're the reason I had to reach out to Vivianne to protect him. She might be his only hope of staying alive, and therefore our only hope. And this is your fault."

[Eckhart_Von_Musel]

It soon became apparent that the barkeeper wouldn't serve Terrence unless the boy spoke up. Just as he was about to do so, another patron entered the bar and sat next to him.

"Oh, fuck."

It was Spider. He evidentially hadn't noticed the boy sitting on the stool next to him, because he struck up conversation with the woman to his left- an Adelan with glowing red hair. Terrence quickly looked down at the counter, eyes wide. "Damn it! Why here? Why now?"

Terrence, despite his fear, wasn't about to let this opportunity slip by. He stayed completely motionless, listening closely to the conversation the two were having. "Ah. So this is Fly, huh? She's certainly... Distinctive." The boy smiled. "This is perfect! Now Hildegarde will know exactly who to-"

Terrence felt his body freeze up. "Vivianne?" he thought, feeling a bead of sweat go down his neck. The news that Spider's assassin was targeting Eckhart again was bad enough, but it wasn't nearly as worrying as hearing that name spoken aloud. "No... It couldn't be. There's gotta be other criminals with that name, right?"

[Celegwen]

"You seriously brought Vivianne into this?" Phoenix asked. "Come on, Spider. You don't need to go crying to her with evey issue you have."

Teryn huffed. "You kind of tied my hands!" He said. "Wasp was gone! You know what she's capable of. I sent Grasshopper after her, and he came back with his bone sticking out of his leg. I sent Moth and Blex after her, and she had enough sense to come back before the same thing happened to them."

Phoenix turned away from him with a pout. "What about Terrence?" Teryn looked slightly shocked that she knew the boy's name, and Phoenix rolled her eyes. "Do you forget that I can read your webs? I've been listening."

"Doesn't matter what happened with Terrence. I let him go, as I promised I would. He's probably half way back to Hildegarde by now. He'll report back to her, and we'll have to figure out our next move. As long as Vivianne keeps Eckhart alive, we have a chance to make some kind of peace."

"The bitch hops around mirrors," Phoenix said. "How is she gonna help him?"

The corner of his lips turned upward. "Shards doesn't just hop around mirrors, Phoenix. She can basically travel through them. If she's with him, Eckhart will be safe."

[Eckhart_Von_Musel]

What was a bad situation had just become a disaster. Terrence's breathing grew sharp, fear spreading through his body like poison. "What? How?" he thought, squirming in his seat uncomfortably. He raised his hand to his mouth, and began to bite his nails. "This is bad! If Vivianne works for Spider, then they already have all the info on us they need! No wonder they found me so quickly!"

Steeling himself, Terrence slipped out of his seat and began to walk towards the door. "I don't have time to wait another day! I'll- I'll steal a dragon, fly home!" Upon walking out of the door, the boy broke into a run. "Alright, where do they keep the dragons? Do they have stables?