slim."

"You know how I said we almost caught him once?" Holmes' gaze dropped to the floor. "We walked in on him ripping the poor girls throat out, we could still hear her screaming when we opened the door to the barn." Jenna was still in a heap on the floor, Balto hoped she didn't hear that. His gaze moved towards the door of the mill. Lena, if you can hear me, hold on pumpkin, I'm gonna find you.

   Lena hadn't had anything to eat for a while, and she was starting to get hungry. The room was still pitch black, except for a light that shined into the cage. Lena lay there, curled up and in tears. She wished her father was there right now, whenever she cried, he knew just what to say to make her feel better. She whimpered "Daddy..."

"Aww, daddy help me!" Came a mocking voice from the darkness. It was the other dog, the one without the scar. Lena knew just what to say to shut him up, but he was a full two feet taller than her, so she thought twice.

"Why are you doing this?" Lena begged.

"Because, master told me too." The big dog spoke slowly. Apparently he wasn't good with words.

"Do you always do what your master tells you?" Lena thought she could get the better of him.

"Uh...well..." The big dog fumbled with his words.

"Yes, he does!" The Masked Entrancer suddenly appeared beside the big dog.

The big dog began nodding, "Yup, you betcha."

"I believe we haven't had the proper introduction." The Masked Entrancer smirked devilishly. "I'm The Masked Entrancer, and this is Butch."

Butch waved, "Hi."

The Masked Entrancer smacked him, "Shut up you! We're not here to play nice." With that the Masked Entrancer opened Lena's cage, and began walking towards her.

"Wh...what do you want from me? If it's money, my father can give you that." Lena pleaded.

"Oh, money doesn't give to me, what I want from you." The Masked Entrancer's smirk grew wider as he got closer to Lena. The room echoed with Lena's screams, he didn't kill her, but she knew her life would never be the same after what he'd just done.

   Fifteen minutes later, the Masked Entrancer walked out of the room, stretched his legs out and began walking off. "Oh yeah, been a long time since it's been that good." Butch walked slowly behind him, but he turned back to look at Lena, she was lying in the now locked cage, beaten, bruised, battered, and now, possibly carrying the Masked Entrancer's pups. Her paws covered her eyes as she let the sobs come, she'd wanter her father to help her more now than ever. Butch lowered his ears, after the past two years, why was she different from the others. He'd done the research on her, she was the youngest of all the dogs, and was Balto's daughter. That wasn't it, he simply couldn't tell, so he walked off, closing the door behind him, leaving Lena to weep at her now lost innocence.

  Holmes sniffed up and down the street where Lena was abducted. "Now, you're sure it was here Star?"

"Yeah, Lena was standing there, the Masked Entrancer was there, and the big one was there." Star still kept his head down.

Balto spoke up, "Star, why are you looking down."

"Because..." He started to cry. "I'm no better than the dirt I'm standing on."

"Oh come on, don't be so hard on yourself." Boris walked up to him and draped his wing over his shoulder, "It's not your fault that Lena got kidnapped.

"I know, but I feel like such a coward. I stood there and did nothing while those two monster's abducted Lena, and now Holmes is saying all the others before her died, I can't take it."

"Hey," Balto forced Star to look up. "The entire town is out looking for Lena, and if you don't want to treat yourself like dirt for the rest of your life, then help me find my daughter."

"Balto, I don't know if I can help you." Star snorted through the tears.

"Star...I know you care for Lena, and I know you're a good friend to her, so please. Don't do it for me," Balto lowered his head now.  "Do it for Lena."

In an instant, Star stopped crying. He nodded to Balto, and paced back and forth across the street. His search led him into an alley that was blocked by a six foot fence. "This is where they took her exactly." He walked out of the alley, his nose still firmly pressed to the ground. He started leading them down street after street, left and right. Balto looked at Star, Hang on Lena, Daddy's comin'. Holmes got a worried look on his face.

"Oh, is that the time." The german shephard pretended to look at a watch. "I really must get going, carry on with the search if you must. Ta-ta." The shepherd ran off.

Boris and Balto exchanghed confused looks. "What was that about?" Boris shrugged.

"I don't know, he looked worried about something.

  Lena sat curled up in the cage, she'd stopped crying, but she was still in shock as to what just happened to her. Suddenly, the door flew open, and three dogs walked in. She recognized two of them, but the third one, a german shepherd, looked out of place, he was far too clean to be one of them.

"What do you mean they found our trail?" The Masked Entrancer yelled.

"They picked up your scent at the scene, are you sure you covered your tracks?" The dog asked with a wierd accent.

"I told you, the snow would cover our tracks." The Masked Entrancer looked enfuriated. "Do anything to stall them, lead them off the trail, kill their tracker if you must. Just do something! What's their trackers name?"

The shepherd spoke coldly, "Star." Lena gasped, a little too loudly. The Masked Entrancer shot his gaze towards Lena.

"You know him?" The Masked Entrancer walked towards her cage, he was growling loudly.

"Y...No." She corrected herself.

"Oh, really?" He suddenly smiled. "Butch, come over here." Lena's jaw dropped in horror as the huge dog walked up to the Masked Entrancer. "Why don't you get a straight answer out of the girl." Lena squeezed herself into a corner of the cage, but the Masked Entrancer pulled her out. "C'mon, do your worst, make her suffer."

"I...I...I'd rather not master." Butch lowered his ears. Lena couldn't believe it, but not as much as the Masked Entrancer couldn't.

"What, why not? You so easily did it to the others. What makes her so different?" He released Lena and smacked Butch across the face. "Huh, what makes her better than the others? Why the sudden compassion?" With every question, the Masked Entrancer hit Butch again. Lena suddenly realized why Butch hated to disobey the Masked Entrancer, she also realized that she had a clear shot for the door. Before she could even move an inch, the shepherd tackled her.

"Oh no you don't, you're not goin to see daddy any time soon." The dogs accent got thicker. Lena looked at the dog, He knows my dad? The shepherd pushed her back in the cage and locked it. The Masked Entrancer was still hitting Butch, his face was starting to bleed. Why doesn't he fight back? He could tear that puny mutt to pieces. After another minute or so, the Masked Entrancer and the shepherd left the room, leaving Butch sitting there next to Lena's cage, a lone tear forming in his eye.

"Butch?" Lena asked, she couldn't believe she sounded concerned for this monster of a dog. It was just her nature, she couldn't help herself.

"What?" Butch wiped his eyes.

"Why do you let him do that to you?" Lena walked to the bars of the cage.

"B...because, he's master." Butch shrugged.

"And who says he is?" Lena pircked her ears up, seeing her chance. "You, or him?" Butch's eyes widened, he'd been so concerned about making master happy, he'd never stopped to think why.

"H...he does." Butch walked closer to Lena.

"Exactly." Butch was close enough to Lena so that she could reach through the bar and put her paw on Butch's shoulder. "I know that deep down you're not like him. You don't want anything to do with him."

Butch looked at the ground. "I know."

Lena put the paw under Butch's chin and lifted his head to make eye contact. "Then help me. Please, I don't want to die. I want to see my father again, and I promise, if you help me, I'll make sure that you don't get banished, or worse." Lena heard footsteps, so she drew her paw back into the cage, Butch simply nodded to her. She cracked a quick smile before the Masked Entrancer walked into the room, the shepherd was gone.

   Back in town, Star was leading Balto and Boris along the scent trail, drawing ever so closer to Lena, and the Masked Entrancer. Star led the two into an open ended alley, his head suddenly shot up. "Lena?"

At the other end of the alley, Holmes shot into view. "Balto, you must stop following Star, he's leading you into a trap!"

Star's head shot up, "What?" Holmes ran up and tackled Star.

"You swine!" The shepherd yelled. "I knew it. It's the only possible explaination. You know Lena very well, in fact, she could even be considered your only friend now after your