Alice awoke with sweat dripping down her face. She examined her surroundings, and discovered she did not know where she was. It was some sort of apartment, there was a television, a kitchen, and she noticed she had been lying in a pull out couch bed.

Where am I? I don't remember...

She looked around again, trying to gain even a subtle memory of how she managed to be in this strange place. Something felt strange about it, as if she had been there before, but she wasn't sure... in fact, she wasn't sure of anything anymore.

It was then that she heard them, loud footsteps coming down the hall outside of the apartment door. She panicked, not knowing who was approaching. The sound of the footsteps grew nearer, and she knew that she could not simply wait for them to enter, she had to get out of there.

Damn, obviously not going to go through the front door...

She chuckled lightly to herself at this remark, and it really didn't occur to her that she may be in for a brutal fight if she didn't escape soon. However, there was nothing she could do, the building was at least 5 stories high, even she could not survive a fall like that..

The footsteps stopped outside of the door, and her heart began to beat faster. She could feel her body growing numb, and it refused to move, or run for cover. She simply stood and waited, nit making a sound.

The handle turned.. and the door opened in one swift motion....

Alice stared blankly at the figure in the doorway. She looked at his calming eyes, and then she knew who it was.

"Yugo?.."

She had not noticed it, but she was sighing in relief. He glanced up at her, a puzzled look on his face.

"What is your problem? I only went out for an hour or two."

He then noticed she had her arms wrapped tightly around his shoulders. Her embrace felt calming, he didn't have the slightest idea why.

"Yugo, I don't know why, but I couldn't remember anything, until I saw you.."

He stared, blinking at her. He hadn't known what to say, he never had. When he saw her eyes meet his, he could feel all of the anger, the pain, the sorrow, it just left him. He got lost in those deep, chocolate colored eyes.

"Yugo.. is something wrong?" She stared up at him.

"No, I just, I, I wanted to say that..." he stammered, and he could not find the words. They wouldn't come, no matter how hard he tried, they just couldn't be found. So, instead, he reverted to his usual manner. Lie.

"Kenji sent me a letter."

"Kenji?"

"Yes"

"What did it s..."

He cut her off, something was outside, his keen sense of smell picked up a scent. It was familiar, yet so new. He moved cautiously towards the window. She moved slowly behind him, watching his every move, waiting for his sort of, command on when to strike. They listened.

Crash!
Alice was sent flying through the air from the impact. Yugo ran as fast as his legs would carry him. Then he saw it, a large man, dressed in an over coat and hat, covering his face. It was strange, he did not smell of human, he smelled of...Zoanthrope. Yugo shook his head. That couldn't be the case, it couldn't be. The man threw Alice over his shoulder, she was out cold and crimson colored blood trickled down her forehead.

"ALICE!"

Yugo jumped on the man, pounding him to the ground, every ounce of anger spilled out from him like a raging river. He did not care about control anymore, he wanted this man dead. No, he wanted him more than dead, he wanted to tear him piece by piece. Yugo had not noticed he had transformed, he only realized this one desire in his mind. He just continued punching and biting, until the man lay there motionless.

Yugo got up, he had changed back to his human state, and he could taste blood in his mouth. He wiped the tiny trickle from his mouth with his sleeve, and then he rushed to Alice's side. She was breathing heavily, but he knew she had merely been knocked unconscious. He stroked her stringy brown hair away from her face, and examined her wound. Nothing serious. He sighed in relief, and looked her up and down. He did not notice what was coming next....

He felt the hard hit of steel against his forehead, and suddenly everything went black.

He awoke, his head aching in pain. He looked around, no sign of Alice. He stood up, and began to panic. He looked over his surroundings once more. He was in some sort of transport vehicle. He could see nothing outside, but he could hear something, it was faint, but he knew he heard it. Was it, breathing? Yes, it was. Someone was in there with him, he could hear them breathing. He heard the sound of the deep breaths become louder as he moved about the vehicle, and then he noticed a small bundle in the corner. He hadn't noticed it before in his state of panic. He pulled the cover off...

It was Alice, but she looked so badly beaten, and at first glance you could not tell it was her. He didn't notice, but he had screamed inside of his own throat at the sight of her. One of her eyes was swollen, you could hardly see the chocolate color shine through, and her body was covered in bruises.

"Alice .. Alice, cut this crap, just quit playing and come on, where the hell are we.. ok, cut it out.." he kept muttering choppy sentence fragments, it was the only thing he could do to keep the truth from him. He did not want to truly know that she, his friend was injured so badly.

He picked her up and held her. He cradled her in his large arms, not truly thinking, but merely acting without thought.

What is wrong with me...I should just escape now, she will be alright, and even so, I am more important. One girl does not make a difference. Why can't I just go?!

He thought for a moment, "Could it be? No. It wasn't. Or was it? No. Maybe.. No."

The truck then stopped, he watched as the door was opened, and there stood the man from earlier. Yugo suspected he was the one to blame for this. His deep, midnight eyes met Yugo's and fire of rage burned within Yugo. He wanted to kill him, torture him even. Make him pay, not for Alice..or was it? No. It was merely because he could not resist a fight. Yugo looked down at her. She looked so sorrowful and beautiful at the same time. No. She was just a girl, a stupid girl. What was his problem?

The man steeped aside and another smaller man appeared. He glared at Yugo. It sent a cold chill down his spine.

"You are the Wolf, I suppose."

Wolf? No one referred to Yugo in that manner. What was he getting at?

"Hmm. Who is the girl? I thought I told you to kill anyone who got in the way?"

The larger man simply pointed to her as if to signal for the other man to take a closer look.

"Ahh, splendid, 2 specimens. The Rabbit I see." He chuckled maniacally.

"You aren't getting Alice." Yugo looked up in anger. They were referring to he and Alice as if they were nothing but sheep being sent to the slaughter.

"Ah, I see, Alice, so this is what she is named, yes, I see. Well, it is a shame, but I need to complete these very important tests." He chuckled again.

"You little bastard, we will not come, we are not your stinking lab rats." Yugo stood up, still holding Alice.

"Yes, yes, I thought you may put up a fight. I am prepared though, you see, my assistant here is quite the fighter, and I do not believe you would be much of a match for him. You see what he did to your friend, if you fight, it will be ten times as worse."

Yugo lashed out in anger. He could not bear it any more. He lost control, he transformed. Pouncing on the larger man, he began to punch furiously, but it was to no avail. The large man grabbed him by the wrist with ease, and brought his cold fist down upon Yugo's head. He could see the smaller man pick up Alice and strap her to some sort of chair with wheels.

"Ali..." Yugo couldn't speak, everything was going black as the large man brought his enormous fist down again and again. Yugo could only see a tiny portion of everything now, the last thing he noticed was Alice, she was not breathing, he could hear her breaths cease, he could feel it, she was dying...