[PRIVATE: DGFone & Thewhistlerify]

[DGFone]

Umeme nudged her sister slightly. "It might seem like a long time right now, but remember what I said? Delano'll be back before you know it." Lina nodded, seemilgly slightly more relxed, and Umeme smiled in relief. She didn't really mind that Lina worried over Delano. It meant that she still loved him. But she worried too much, to the point that it was becoming a problem.

------

Delano felt uncertain when a group came and surrounded him. That uncertainty turned into fear when they closed in on him, forcing him inside and into a dark set of tunnels. "What are you doing?" he protested, "I'm on your side!" He was rewarded in a hard shove against a wall to shut him up.

Not knowing what to do, he tried running for it. If he can grab someone else's attention, he might be able to explain what he was here for. But before he got anywhere, the lions surrounding him and forced him to the ground. Delano grunted in pain as they subdued him, but he didn't try to fight them any longer. He felt lost and betrayed by the very ones who he wanted to help.

And now he didn't know what was going to happen anymore. In the underworld, he was able to look out for himself, but here, where he though he would be safe, things were even worse off.

[TheWhistlerify]

Lina, while a little more relaxed, wasn't completely calm. She was still nervous. The worse thing about this, was that this was how she spent her time since the evening she couldn't see a message from Delano; pacing around the den like a soon-to-be-father would pace outside of a den in which his mate was about to give birth to their cubs. This stress was with her every single moment, it's not like it came for a few minutes and then left her on her own.

---

Neither one of the group members seemed too convinced by the way Delano claimed he was on their side. It might make little sense that a pride member would not care to remember the password, but a police member should know it, since all the lions they took as workers were very serious lions. The lead lion said, "Let's just get this done with. If you're really stupid enough to forget the password then the chief should recognize you." Sanders knew every single one who worked for them, whether he was just a guard and whether he was an undercover worker. "If not..." he shrugged to show that he didn't care much and couldn't care less.

With that he left, leaving Delano still surrounded and pinned down by the other lions who didn't say a word and only looked at him with disgusted expressions. They hated the underworld so much, everything they did seemed just horrible to them. So if the chief would not recognize Delano and would therefor approve of a slight chance that Delano might be working for the underworld, they would not hesitate to kill him on the spot. Their lead lion came back after a minute or two and, to Delano's luck, without Sanders. Lucky for Delano Sanders just happened to not be at the police tunnels at that moment.

"The chief is not here." he said, getting looks from the other lions asking him what they should do with their prisoner. The lead lion walked over to Delano and bent his head closer to him with a frown. "How exactly should we know that you're on our side?" he didn't know the password, and the lions who were now holding him didn't really care. "You can't possibly be working for us, because I personally made sure that every single lion here memorized the new password." unknown to Delano, the police made a specific password for the pride members and a different password for police workers.

[DGFone]

Umeme was getting slightly annoyed by Lina's constant pacing. "Come on, Lina. You know that pacing around won't solve anything. Try to relax. He's fine."

----

Delano was ready to give up by now. Still held down, he couldn't do much but try to ignore the pain of several lions' worth of claws digging into him. The only thing that kept him from trying to run again was the hope that somehow, someone here would recognize him. But when a lion left in order to look for Sanders, Delano felt his blood run cold with fear. Sanders will recognize him, alright, but he might also kill him as well.

Delano froze under his captors when he heard someone outside, but when he saw that the lion came back alone, he closed his eyes in relief. But that relief was short lived. They still didn't know who he was, and he felt the claws dig into him even more. He winced in pain. Clearly, these lions wanted to kill him on the spot. "Check... the records," he grunted. "You will see that I am one of you..." The pressure on him was making it really hard to concentrate now. Undercover or not, now both sides wouldn't mind killing him. "Name's Delano... you should find it..."

Fed up with being pressed roughly against the ground, Delano tried to stand up, but was prevented from doing so. He tried to voice his discomfort, but was whacked hard against the head as well. Deciding that it's better not to do anything, Delano slumped against the ground.

[TheWhistlerify]

Lina sighed at that and finally lay down, even though on the inside she didn't calm down at all. She was trying to, but nothing she Umeme and Muroki said seemed to help that much anymore. After a long moment she seemed to relax a little more, somehow, and she placed her head down on her paws and closed her eyes.

---

The lead lion said nothing for a few moments. While there always was a possibility that Delano was just some underworld lion who found out a name of a police worker and just called himself so, there was still one way to check whether Delano was telling the truth. The other lions groaned with annoyance, obviously in no mood to wait with Delano until somebody went to search through the police records. The lead lion however silenced them with a wave of his paw and again left.

He came back again after a few moments, carrying Delano's rock piece. While the trainees only left their paw mark in it, the police trainers themselves afterwards wrote the lion's name on the other side of the rock. Delano might have not understood the letters he was seeing on the back of the rock, but those letters were signifying his name. The lion placed the rock in front of Delano and the lions holding him released one of his paws, the right one, which all police members used to make their marks on their rocks. "Go ahead." it was going to take a very close look to see whether Delano's paw fitted perfectly, but those lions were already well trained to recognize that.

[DGFone]

When Lina finally lay down, Umeme took Muroki aside where she won't hear them. "Are you sure that Delano is alright?" She asked. Even though she knew that Muroki knew just as little as she did, he knew his brother better. "Delano is able to take care of himself, right?"

----

Delano looked at the rock plate in front of him. He was now able to read the writing on it, and saw that it was his name on it. With one paw free, it was his only chance to prove himself. "Now let me show you what I already know," He placed his paw down on the rock, grinning smugly when it fit perfectly.

The lions around him where shocked, but nevertheless released their hold on Delano. He slowly got to his feet, wincing as the various cuts on him stretched from the movement. "You couldn't have done this in an easier way, could you?" He asked, but didn't bother with an answer. "Can I go now?"

[TheWhistlerify]

Muroki really hated seeing Lina like this, and it only made him happier that he stayed with Umeme, because he would hate to figure out that this was how she felt like the entire time during his absence. He shook his head, "No, I'm not." he sighed. there was no point in lying, nobody could be sure. "I'm not going to lie and say that I know he's alright, because I don't. But Delano can take care of himself and he's not stupid, he probably knows what he's doing... Am I worried? Of course I am, he's been leaving messages daily until now." he let out another sigh and hugged her, "I'm glad I stayed here, I wouldn't want to have you end up like Lina is, she's obviously not feeling too good at the moment..."

---

The lions simply left after a few moments in which they recovered from the shock of Delano turning out to actually be one of them. They left and so Delano remained alone with the lead lions. "No, not yet." he said simply. There were still a few things he wanted and needed to know, like how come Delano didn't know the password and what exactly was 'so urgent' that he needed to report. "Why don't you remember the password exactly? You know you were lucky to have even been given the chance to prove yourself. Another lion in charge might have had you killed. And what was this urgent thing you wanted to talk to someone about?"

[DGFone]

Umeme nodded. Muroki told her no more than she really expected from him. "It's just that I hate seeing Lina like this," she said softly, "she's my sister, and if Delano doesn't come back, or dies..." She let out a sigh. "I'm glad you're here for me," she told Muroki, nuzzling him, "but for now, you'll need to be here for Lina as well."

----------

Delano frowned, but knew that he needed to explain himself. "I'm working undercover," he told the lion, "and wasn't here for the past few days... When I left, there weren't any passwords to get in here." He wasn't sure whether or not it was safe to divulge the information he found out to this lion, though. "I need to speak to someone important. I know why nothing we do works." He waited for the lion's response, aware that had already spent too much time in here.

[TheWhistlerify]

Muroki closed his eyes, gently returning Umeme's nuzzle with a sigh. "I don't know..." he admitted, "I know that I'm Delano's brother, but I'm not Delano." sure, he and his brother did have a lot in common, but in the end they were both two different lions. "I'm doing the best I can to help calm her down, or go with her to check for messages whenever she wants to go, but I don't think there's more I can do than that." Muroki wanted Delano to come back already, not for his own sake but for Lina's.

---

The lion listened to Delano, finally dropping the frown as he realized that Delano really did have a logical reason for not knowing the password. "Well, as you already know the chief is not here at the moment." he said after a few moments, wondering what exactly did Delano have on his mind. Not many lions returned after going undercover, and those who did never had any news to report. "Well, if someone finally knows why nothing we do works I'll be more than glad to hear it with my own ears."

[DGFone]

Umeme smiled. "I don't think she'll need more than that from you. Lina's strong. Right now she's worried, but tomorrow, mark my words, she'll be a lot better." But then her smiled faded a little. "But in the end, she won't be truly happy until Delano comes back."

---

Delano hesitated. But he knew that telling this lion would be better than not telling anyone. Just by being here he was taking a large risk, so he might as well make it worth it. "You know how no matter what we do, it always seems like the underworld knows what we do?" He hesitated again, but forced himself to continue. "It's because they do. The chief, Sanders... he's in charge of us... but he's also in charge of the underworld. Everything we report to him he tells them..." Delano was not at all surprised to see the look of pure disbelief coming from the other lion. "Look, I know it sounds outrageous, but you have to believe me!"

[TheWhistlerify]

Muroki sighed, "I'll try to help her however I can." He was more than certain that if he Umeme was the one gone then he would have already lost his sanity, which caused him to hold her even closer. "I love you so much... I'm so happy that I'm here with you now, really..." he pulled away so that he could look into her eyes, before deciding to ask her something he wanted to ask for a long time. "Umeme, will you be-" he was cut short when he saw Lina passing behind Umeme and walking outside, stopping a few meters outside of the den and sitting down, simply staring into the distance.

---

Just like Delano anticipated, the lion didn't seem to be believing anything, since not a single word Delano just said made any sort of sense. After a few more moments, the lion broke into laughter, "You can't be serious!" he said, still laughing. "You think that just because he's not here all the time then he's with the underworld at god knows where." then again, Sanders was often gone whenever he should be with the police helping them deal with their problems. The lion thought about that and stopped laughing. "Even if that made any sort of sense, which it doesn't, how exactly do you expect to prove it?"