"How'd he do?" Ana asks Jonah after the tests were given. Ana had watched on the video feed, but she still wants a report from someone physically there.
"He's hurt and bleeding. Took a big beating but still kept going. He passed if he survives." Jonah says laconically.
"Is he likely to survive?" This time it's Trinity that demands an answer. He doesn't like how Michael treated Ana and hopes the bastard doesn't survive.
"Yeah, he was fairly cognizant when he was whisked to the infirmary. I got a funny feeling about this one, boss." Jonah hadn't liked it from the start but it's been bothering him more every time he thinks about it.
"It smells to high heaven, Jonah." Ana smiles, "Damon, myself, Trinity and pretty boy will be there tomorrow for the swearing in. Did you notice any tats?"
"Nothing, but that doesn't mean anything either." Jonah says rapidly to get everything said that he wants to say.
"I know, that's why Trinity will be taking my place to take and give his oath. I want Damon there to tell me what he thinks. Calum will be left in charge of Phoenix just in case something comes up. Damon doesn't even want me there.
"I'll be taking a mix of Hawk and Spider men with me as well. How many do you have planned to be there?"
"I'll put all of them in there if I could. How many do you want?"
"Put some of mine as well, Ana, an attack against you is still an attack against me." Damon says cutting into the conversation.
"Are you sure?" Ana asks looking upset.
"Some of my men have requested to go. They think it's a trap and don't want you hurt."
"By some you mean Jackson?" Ana smirks.
"And Tony and half a dozen others." This information wipes Ana's smirk clean off.
"We'll place Phoenix's men inside in the darker areas, it's possible that they'll be made otherwise. It's already assumed that I took over Spider as well so that won't be a problem."
"How many?"
"Twenty should do it."
"Altogether?"
"No, twenty each, that includes Phoenix if he can find twenty volunteers. I won't take any that are forced to go."
Damon nods at her words and leaves to talk to his men. He doesn't doubt that he'll get that many. Ana does though.
Michael stands nervously waiting. Soon it will be time to swear his oath to Hawk. This is what he's been waiting for, his chance to prove himself.
He's brought out to the front of the room. He's told to stay put and remain standing. He hopes this doesn't take too long his ribs hurt like hell and he wants to take some pain meds.
Shortly other people start filing into the room and taking up seats along the wall and in front of the podium. He's startled to find that several people pass behind him and remain standing. He's perhaps the most surprised to see Phoenix standing there next to the pretty boy and the slut he ran into at school that laughed at him.
Looking at her he about jumps as he sees an intelligence in her face he failed to notice before. He feels sick like she's judging him and finding him lacking just like everyone else. He wonders just why she's here and what she meant by pretty boy is there to protect others from her, not her from others?
His thoughts are interrupted when another man steps up onto the staging area. Michael's heart beat picks up. Trinity, Hawk's son stands before him. He'd done it, Hawk really is before him.
Soon the quiet murmuring of the crowd stops as Trinity puts his hands up asking for quiet. "We are gathered here to welcome our newest member and to hear him give his oaths of loyalty. Michael, would you step forward please?"
This is it, Michael steps forward and takes the oath and receives Hawk's in return. Then he is escorted to a man waiting to give him his first tattoo, a Hawk in flight. It will just be the outline for now, but as he works his way higher it will get filled in.
Ana watches it all with a seriousness that she rarely shows to anyone. "Shit." Is the only thing she says and heads off the platform and goes to her office. "Send him to me when he's done getting his fucking tattoo."
The others standing with her are confused. Well mostly, Damon understands, Michael isn't lying about his oaths.
"Trinity stay with her. Jackson stand by the door. Jacob, damn you better go in as well although she might just send you back out again."
"And you sir?" Jonah asks diffidently.
"I promised her I wouldn't interfere and unless she calls for me...I'll be by the refreshments."
Michael is pulled aside by Jonah and given his instructions. He swallows nervously, entry level members aren't called in to talk to the boss unless they've done something wrong.
He goes to the office door and notices the body guard standing there and knocks before he loses his nerve.
"Come in." It isn't Trinity's voice that gives that command but although it makes him hesitate he opens the door and goes in.
He stops when he sees the girl he insulted sitting in the chair behind the desk and Trinity and pretty boy standing behind her in guarding positions.
"Michael, your information is full of shit. You better give me the truth if you wish to leave here tonight in one piece. Hell, refusing to tell me the truth will make it so I have someone to give me some fun."
"Ana, he doesn't understand who you are. Don't you think you should introduce yourself?"
"No, that would sound pretentious. Why don't you introduce me Trinity?" Ana snaps, she doesn't like being wrong.
"Very well." Trinity turns from Ana and faces the confused new member, "Michael, meet Ana Young, also known as Hawk and Spider. She is also the ward of Phoenix, you may have noticed him here earlier as well."
Trinity notices the look on Michael's face and explains. "Ana took out my father several years ago and that's when she became Hawk. She took down Spider several months ago and that's when she took them over."
"But you're Hawk's son," Michael wants to cry, he can't believe he gave his oath to a girl.
"Yeah, and now he's my third and my bodyguard. You've got a problem with that?"
Michael takes a long look at Ana and something inside him tells him to shut up and back off. "No, ma'am."
Ana gives him a disappointed look, "And here I thought I was going to get some more fun." Ana pouts at his words. Then she brightens, he still hasn't told her the truth about himself.
"Who are you?" Ana demands and her tone is cold and her voice is hard. The fun and games are over.
"My name is Michael B..." he's cut off as Ana slams her hand down on the desk hard enough to make things jump around. Michael jumps as well and that's when he realizes that there is a man behind him.
"Don't tell me any of your bullshit lies. The truth, Michael and I know when you lie. Who the hell are you?"
"My name truly is Michael Blaine, but my last name is Anguis. You might have heard of my father's group, Snake. I came here to join Hawk to spite my father. I heard that Hawk was badass and could take my father down even though he's affiliated with a strong European mafia."
Ana leans forward, "Which one?"
"The French mafia."
Ana blinks thinking rapidly. "Get Damon in here." She orders Jacob and he races out the door.
"If your father has his own group why the hell are you spurning him and trying to take him down?"
"He disowned me, said I wasn't good enough and wouldn't amount to anything."
"Ana?" Damon comes in silently as Michael is talking.
"Why should I believe you won't betray me?" Ana demands. "For all I know you could be working with your father, Snake and his French counterpart."
"French?" Damon demands. When Calum had gone to the meet the man never showed.
"Yes, it seems Michael here is Snakes son and Snake is allied with the French Mafia." Ana never lets her eyes leave Michael's. He's beginning to believe what she told him before she started laughing at him at school.
"I'm still waiting Michael. And if you're wondering, I have some delightful ideas on what to do with the next man that betrays me. My men can tell you what happened to the last two that did. You might have nightmares afterwards, many of them still have trouble sleeping."
"I have no loyalty left towards my father. He's beaten me and abused me mentally all my life. He killed my mother when she tried to protect me from him. He let my sister be sold in the auctions and she was later beaten to death, she was six." Michael's words come out hot and heavy and fall into the room like a brick.
He becomes a little taken aback when Ana starts smiling. When Damon starts shaking his head at her reaction Michael knows something is going to happen and he's not going to like it.
"Welcome to Hawk, Michael. But, in light of circumstances I believe a name change is in order. You will need to renounce your family name and take mine I think. Well, Michael Young, are you in?"
Ana could feel the stares from all the men in the room. Damon's is especially piercing and it makes her laugh out in joy.
Michael doesn't know what to do so he says, "I, Michael Blaine, renounce my family name of Anguis and do take the family name of Young."
With that being said the focus turns to him. "I trust him now, but make sure he knows what will happen if he betrays me."
"One last thing, Michael, if I catch you bullying anyone at school again, I'll kill you." Michael stares at the young woman he's given his life to with a look of thunderstruck horror.
"She's kidding right?" He appeals to the men in the room.
They all shake their heads. Michael swallows nervously, he's not sure that he can stop bullying, it's all he's ever known.
"If you need help, Jacob here can help you." Ana says and points to the pretty boy he'd insulted.
"Please, bullying is all I've known."