A young tall man lay unmoving in a bed. Dressed in a blue suit with a red brim and a skull and cross bones mark on the left side on his chest. His white scarf was missing from his neck and so were his guns from his side. He had a long hazel brown hair where some of the locks were down in his face. He also had scar across his face, going from the other side of the nose bone and followed on down his left cheek.

Wakening up with a splinting headache, young Harlock moved pain fully in the bed he was in. Opening his hazel brown eyes he looked up on the ceiling for a few seconds as his eyes adjusted to the light in the room. Sitting up braving the dizziness and pain, he streaked his right had behind his head and rubbed the painful spot were the neck met the head joint.

Damm, those metal boxes hit hard. Harlock thought as he suddenly realised that he was chained by two long chains to the wall next to his bed. The chains did not restrict any of his movement at least. Looking around he saw that he was in a big room cut of by some metal bars that made a sort of cell. His cell was not to big a few feet at least with a bed. Standing up he moved to the bars that held him in. The chains rattled as he moved and he tried to pull to see how strong they were. Quickly realizing that he could not pull free, he looked at the locks on his wrist. Sighing he looked out of his cell.

On to other side only a few feet away there was another cell like his and another man were laying there still unconscious.

"Zero!" He said surprised. The young man was not much older than Harlock. His chocolate brown hair lay forward down in his eyes. He was dressed in a black pans and a red shirt as his captains jacked and hat were missing.

So far Harlock had believed that he had been captured by bounty hunters or the military but seeing his friend and rival chained up as well made no sense. Cosmo warrior Zero was the captain of most of the military. Harlock found it strange that he would be chained up like him, one of the most feared pirates in the universe. Harlock sighed again realizing that he had to wait at least until Zero woke up before he could get some answerers. Sitting back down on the bed he put his had in one of his pockets, he smiled a bit to himself he realised that whoever held him here had not taken his watch. He carefully puled it out. It was an old pocket watch, that his father the first Captain Harlock had given him. The watch had their family trade mark the skull and crossbones on it. Flipping the lid on it, he looked at what the time was. From his counting it had been nearly a day since he had been captured. Closing the lid, he carefully pulled out the pin that held the lid in place. Putting the watch down, Harlock started to use the pin to pick up the lock on the chain fastened his right hand.

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After a little while suddenly there was a movement coming from the other cell. Harlock put the pin down and watched as Zero started to come back to his senses. Zero lay still after coming back looking at the celling. Resting one of his hands to his hurting head, he suddenly looked at his chained hands, and sat quickly up. Harlock grinned a bit as he saw that moving so quickly nearly made Zero pass out again.

"Your finally awake then?" Harlock said looking at him. Harlock sat resting his back to the wall with one foot in the bed resting his right hand over the knee. Zero stood suddenly up.

"Harlock!" He growled and jumped towards him. Coming to a sudden stop as the chains would not let him go any further that the bars.

"What have you done? Let me go this instant." He ordered. Harlock grinned before laughing out loud.

"You think I put you in there? Then by all means captain, sir, I will free you as soon as I get out of these myself." He said as he stood up and came to his bars, lifting his right hand showing the chains on it.

"What? But why?" Zero looked confused in more ways then one as he saw this.

"Then I take it you don't know any more than I do about why we are here." Harlock said sighing to himself with a grin.

"I suppose I was experting to much of you then." Harlock said as he sat back down on the bed. Zero looked at him, his fists were shaking in anger.

"Its easy to realize why I would be a target for any one with the bounty on my head, but why they took you as well." Harlock said as he started again to pick the lock. He gave a quick glaze at Zero that had not moved at all.

"How on earth did you even get captured?" He said looking strait at him. Zero snared to himself and pulled his chains to get free.

"We got a coded signal that when we decoded it told of a man that knew your where bouts and that he would only tell me alone." Zero started to tell and sat down on the bed. Harlock gave him a sceptical look lifting on of his eyebrows.

"As we came to the coordinates, I took of in a small ship and landed down on the place the message said. Leaving the plane I went on alone. Suddenly these robots shaped like big bugs came at me from every where, shooting as many as I could I found cover in some rocks and tried to hold them back, but one of them had gotten behind me and I was knocked out cold." Zero said cursing his own stupidity. He looked up at Harlock who had stood up again and were standing next to the bars.

"I already knew that last part. We were not to far from you when we got a transmission of you battling the bugs. At first I was not gonna go anything but as we saw the one coming up behind you... You can say I guess I was not thinking strait as I went down there to take care of it. I just cant stand seeing any one doing something as cowardly as that. Fighting my way over to you the bugs suddenly over whelmed me and I was knocked out as well. I guess I should not really have gotten involved." Harlock grinned to himself. Zero was confused.

Why would they use me as bait to get Harlock. There were no guaranty that Harlock would have come at all. But most of all why did Harlock really risk his life to save mine? Zero thought looking at the pirate in front of him. Suddenly there was a sound coming from the door in the room that they were in. Harlock moved quickly and took his watch and put it back together and put it in his pocket. Turning back to Zero he grinned and moved back up to the bars to see what they were up against.

In from the door an older man came. He was short but taller than Tochiro. He had grey hair and grey bard and were moving slowly into the room. Dressed in a white lab jacked and white pants, he was followed by some unmistakeable known droids, the same that Zero had met before fighting the Hell castle. Their black feeling less metal body made a small chill go down Zeros back.

"So you two are finally awake then. good then we can begin the testing right away." The old man said.

"Wait, testing? Who are you?" Zero demanded to know.

"Oh yes how rude of me. I am doctor Kichigai. I was once a renown psychiatrist at the earth but was banished from the earth for my methods." Zero's face paled as he heard the name.

"Doctor Kichigai, you used to torture you victims, nearly to death." Zero said. Harlock looked at Zero and then back at the old man.

"That was treatment, but none of you block heads could get that, so you kicked me out here in the stars. Where I drifted for a long time finding no place that would take me in as the foul rumour you spread always were before me." The old man was angry and looked at Zero with a look that could nearly kill.

"And then I met The Galaxy Emperor that liked my work, and hired me as a motivate for his men. I have been so buzzy since. And now he came to me and told me to capture the two of you and find out what motivates you to fight as you do. I feel so honoured, since I have not gotten to do much on real humans. And here I have two great specimens to work with." Doctor Kichigai looked at Harlock with a look that seemed to hunger after getting started. Harlock feelt that he was getting looked at like a lab rat. The doctor turned his head and looked at Zero. Zero jumped a bit seeing that look.

"My orders are to either break you or kill you." The doctor grinned. "But I think you two will provide much entertainment before we come to that." He said and pushed a button on the control he had in his hand. Suddenly to the two young men surprise the bars went down in the floor. The droids came towards Harlock and Zero. The two men exchanged looks before they both suddenly were moving. Harlock kicked one of the droids way from him and hit the other one with a hard right. Zero punched the two droids that were coming towards him, from him. As the four droids landed on the floor Both Harlock and Zero jumped towards the doctor. As they were almost over him when he pushed another button on the control. Suddenly Harlock and Zero was getting pulled backwards in a dangerous speed. Both of them hit the wall next to the beds in their cells, hitting the wall with their back heads. Suffering from the pain of getting thrown backwards like that, they where fighting trying to get lose, the chains that was fastened around their wrist had pulled into the wall and held them up towards the wall. Their arms were held apart over their heads.

"There, there, no need to get violent is there? Just stand there and relax." The doctor said grinning. The four droids got back up and came towards them again. The two men were still struggling to get free as one of the droids grabbed them around their neck and lifted them up. Feeling the strain on their necks as it was getting hard to breath, made only them more angry.

"Let them go. I gave you no order to kill them yet." The doctor said. The droids let go and the two men got back up staring angry towards the old man.

"Well then shall we begin?" He asked looking at Harlock. The doctor pulled out a syringe and came towards him.

"Harlock!" Called Zero out as the old man came towards Harlock. Suddenly there were a shine in Harlocks eyes and he kicked out after the old man. The old Doctor got kicked away and glided on the floor. The two droids next to Harlock turned and started to punch him in the face.

"Harlock!" Zero called again struggling to get free.

"That's enough!" The old man suddenly called out as he got back on to his feet. "Hitting this man is not gonna help us. You need to use another way to get to him." He said and there was a scary look in his eyes.

"Yes, sir" Said one of the droids and moved towards Harlock taking off something around his neck. Harlocks eyes narrowed as he saw the metal ring in the droids hands. The other droid held his legs as the droid held it up to his neck. Harlock struggled to get free as the ring snapped tight around his neck. The droids let him go. Harlock had a look in his eyes that said he was gonna kill someone for this.

"What is that?" Zero asked as the droids moved out of the way and he could see the ring.

"One of my inventions. This one is my favourite as it always gets the result I want to get." Doctor Kichigai grinned.

"Now are you gonna play along and let me get some of your blood or do you want to do this the hard way?" He asked as he came up towards Harlock again. Harlock spit out some blood from his mouth.

"Never!" He said looking back at the old man. Doctor Kichigai grinned looking back at him as he gave the syringe to one of the droids.

"I was hoping you were gonna say that." He grinned as he pushed down a red button on the control. Suddenly Harlock threw his head back biting his teeth together as the ring were giving out strong electric shocks. Harlock struggled in his chains as it hurt like hell.

"Harlock!" Zero called out seeing the young pirate in pain. He could see the shocks as the metal ring were glowing and sparking.

"Stop it, you are killing him!" Zero called out towards the doctor, struggling to get free. Suddenly he feelt a screaming pain in his neck as one of the droids had pushed the syringe down in his neck and were drawing out his blood. Pulling the syringe out Zero growled out in pain. The doctor grinned and let go of the red button. Harlock hang lifeless in the chains as the other droid came up and drew the blood from him.

"Harlock..." Zero said seeing the pirate not moving.

"Sir, you want us to put a ring on this one as well?" one of the droids asked looking at Zero.

"Might as well, we might need it." The doctor replied. One of the droids pulled of a ring like the one Harlock had on from his neck. Zero struggled as the other one held his head still as the ring snapped in place around his neck. The droids pulled away from the two men as the bars were going back up. Harlock slowly raised his head up and looked at the doctor.

"You are gonna pay for this." Harlock said growling. The doctor laughed.

"Yes you two are gonna provide me with loads of fun." He laughed as he left. Suddenly the chains gave after and came out again. Harlock fell forward and landed on his knees. Zero rushed up to the bars.

"Harlock! Hold on!" He called out again. Zero looked at him as the pirate struggled his sore body back up and sat down on the bed. Harlock tried to take hold of the ring and pull it of but the ring was not even moving. Zero tried to do the same.

"Looks like we really got us self into real trouble." said Harlock with a small grin.

Author's note:

so okay got a bit inspired by the first extra episodes of Cosmo warrior Zero, and got this idea in my head. I just had to write it down as it just kept getting better.

I hope I did not stray to far from their personality as I am not used to having to Zero as well. Tell me if I did so I can get the personality right in the next chapter.

Also their was a small homage to Geminis story "don't pay the ferryman"

I know I used the same ring idea as my fic "hunters prey" and used the watch that came in from my fic "old memorys" but I say I just use what works, right?

Feel free to tell me how I did.

Ligthingtooth.