Chapter 3 is the most grisly chapter I've written for the moment, but I imagine it'll get worse at times. So a mild gore warning for all of those sensitive to gross descriptions. Otherwise, please enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter and make no profit from this fic. Everything you see has been borrowed, except Kit and the people of TIX.

Chapter 3

Kit awoke in the dark to multiple screams. With Sun screaming in her mind to move now, because she was in danger and another terrible girlish scream somewhere close, she immediately obeyed. Eyes wildly flying about the room, she tried to understand what was happening.

A hastily drawn curtain was covering her from whatever was happening. Kit swallowed tightly and struggled with her restraints to peek around the small gap. At first the shapes she saw didn't make sense. Then her slightly heightened smell picked up the scent of blood, it was almost overpowering in its amount but the scent of something burning and chemical filled her nose.

The screams had been reduced to a throaty gargle and didn't even sound human anymore.
"Hurry up Andrews, we've got three others to do!" A grunt was the reply. Doctor Patel and the wizard that trained them, we're hurting Fae. In most cases, the Doctor's would perform experiments that hurt and made all the experiments, afraid and sick.

However, Kit knew that whatever they were doing to Fae, wasn't anything to do with splicing or helping the recuperating fairy girl get better. Judging from the sounds, she was going to die.

Kit renewed her struggles and remembered that Darwin was with her when she fell asleep. Turning her head to the spot she last saw him, she spotted the untouched potion the nurse had given him. On the floor, there was something darker than the rest of the room. Craning her neck to the other side as much as her restraints allowed her, she finally found Darwin. Glassy eyed, and silent, he was in an undignified and uncomfortable looking heap at the foot of her bed.

The panic in the fox girl was rekindled and she began struggling harder against the restraints holding her as quietly as she could. Though magic had made them snap against her body, they were not held by magic but instead attached like belts around her. They were fastened tight and were made of long strips of thick leather, she wouldn't break them anytime soon.

Her incessant wriggling had freed two of her tails from behind her back, she could move them freely enough and tried using one to pry open the latch keeping her prisoner, to no avail.
'Use your fire, Vixen!' Sun practically roared at her. Taking his advice, Kit shuffled the tip of her tail just underneath the strap across her elbows and snapped her fingers. Her stomach began to feel hot and uncomfortable, but Kit could not burn herself from her own flames. Quickly, the strap melted and Kit shrugged it off, patting out her smouldering sleeve and began awkwardly undoing the buckle around her shoulder, the ones binding her knees and ankles quickly followed suit before Kit quietly rolled off the bed.

Landing on all fours, she winced at the sting in her wrist and scrambled out from her drawn curtain and away from the corpse of the kind wizard. Kit hid herself on the opposite side of the curtain from the body of Darwin and the murderers at the other end of the room where Fae's screams had finally stopped. Keeping low she made to hurry towards the door, but didn't get far before Fae's curtain was yanked back and Kit made the hasty decision to dive under the closest bed occupied by Slug, who was still sleeping soundly. The Doctor made her way over to Kit's hiding place.

Tasting bile and shaking hard, Kit waited for the worst.
"Alright, let's get this one done fast." The usual monotone voice of Doctor Patel was filled with panic and authority. Dragging her knees up into a ball, tails curling around her waist and fluffy ears flattened against her skull, Kit waited for them to find her.

Luck must have been on her side, they didn't see her, but instead what they did was worse.
"Mordax Imbre!" Andrews suddenly yelled and although Kit could feel the ambient magic, for a moment it seemed that nothing really happened. Then Kit paid more attention to the faint hiss that was growing louder, suddenly, something oozed onto the floor next to her. Turning quickly to face it, she was met with the sharp smell of something she could hardly stand, but it was foul and made her eyes sting. A hissing puddle in the ground was spitting clear fluid all around, Kit felt some of the spray splash her arms and bit her tongue to hold back her cry.

Wiping her arm quickly, she examined the patches of bare arm where the puddle had spat at her and cringed at the slight mottled looking flesh and rivulets of blood that were oozing down her biceps.

Making the smart decision to scramble back and making herself as small as possible, saved her life. Large splashes of acid were dripping from the bed, at first Kit thought it was Slug, he did secrete an acid like substance, but it mostly blistered people, it didn't eat through the flesh like his namesake suggested.

After a pregnant pause, the screams began again.
"This one won't melt!" Andrews yelled over the young teens screams.
"I was worried he might not, alright, keep doing it for a moment we need to get rid of all evidence. I'll get started on the next one." Kit was worried she was going to do the same to her, or worse when they found out she wasn't in her bed.
"How long do we have until they get here?" Andrews grunted over the strain of melting a boy who was practically made of acid.
"We have at least an hour, if our sources are correct." There was a pause and a hesitant, "Which, of course, they are."

It was at that opportune moment that there was a deep boom, and the walls vibrated and small clouds of dust and debris fell from the ceiling.
"I don't think we have an hour, Doctor! That's gotta be those bastards, we have to get out of here now, they'll throw us in Azkaban!" There was a stomp of a heel and Kit saw Doctor Patel's dainty feet come into view.
"And if they find any of the bodies and know what we did to them, we'll get the kiss!"

Andrews never got the chance to reply as he tried to yank back Doctor Patel, but was just a little too late and the heels Kit was watching with fear, disappeared before there was a bang against the other end of the room.
"STOP IT!" A bellowing voice that Kit recognised easily and gave her a newfound sense of courage through her. Above her, a loud 'omph!' was heard as Brax attacked Andrews. The back of his legs bashed into the bed and Kit watched his feet unbalance as he tried to defend himself.

There was an audible clatter, and Kit easily spotted the wand that had fallen from the murderous wizard. Barely hesitating, she reached out and snatched it up she could feel the power of the small stick and it made her feel the magic inside her, it was comforting and foreboding at the same time.

Flinching hard as the bed bashed against the wall and rolled slightly, nearly revealing Kit's hiding spot, she made another decision to help. It was easy to be brave when she thought about what they had done to the others and what they were going to do to her and Brax.

Pocketing the wand and grabbing onto his ankles, Kit yanked hard. She bumped her head on the metal bed for her trouble, but Andrews tripped forwards and sprawled out on the floor. Face down There wasn't any hesitation as Brax immediately began to stomp on him, his powerful legs, cracking ribs, leaving horrific bruises and breaks in the wizards arm that poked through his skin.

Brax didn't stop until he was a meaty mess, suddenly lifting up the cover hanging over the bed, he spotted Kit and smiled tightly.
"Let's go." Those words put equal parts fear and hope into her chest, she knew a little of how the wizarding world worked, with no money, and looking like botched Animagus transformations, they wouldn't get very far.

Though they needed to run away to survive, Kit always knew that dying here was likely but had never felt motivated enough to escape. But when she thought about it, to actually see the sky, to smell the fresh air, to feel grass beneath her feet for the first time... It gave her enough hope to nod confidently and crawl out from under the bed to grab onto Brax's arm

She tried very hard not to look behind her but it was to no avail, even through the corner of her eye, she saw the horrific mess on the bed. Only one word seemed to come to mind, melted. Slug's body was like a melted candle, hot blood oozed down the side of the plastic mattress, his rib cage was exposed and chunks of his flesh were still dropping the floor with meaty squishes.

Quickly turning away, she knew nothing could be done for him now and fell instep with Brax who dragged her towards the door. It was thankfully unlocked, as Brax threw it open and sprinted down the hallway

At first Kit didn't know where the exit was, nor where she was being dragged to, but it became clear when he started pulling her up flights of stairs. The door all the staff entered from had to lead to an exit. With renewed energy, she hurried to keep pace with him, barely managing until a yell cut across the corridor and made her freeze.

"Stop!" It was one of the Doctor's who began shooting spells and was hurtling towards them at full speed.

Brax yanked Kit out of the way of a sickly green curse headed towards her. Stumbling, she barely heard his command but having trained together more than once, she knew what he wanted her to do.
"Fire!"

Time seemed to slow down for Kit, she had never hurt anyone on purpose with her fire before. She didn't want to hurt him, but she wanted to get away and knew that this man was going to kill them both.
'Just think of him as the sandbag. It's either us or him, Vixen, you must choose.' Sun's voice was calming, and cut across the jumbled thoughts in her head leaving only one remaining.
"I don't want to die."
'Then don't let this be your end. Fight Kit, you have to.'

Decision made, Kit spread her feet apart and poised her tails as she snapped her fingers. The Doctor running towards them halted and tried to cast a hasty shield, which blocked only the first ball of fire, but not the other two. They slammed into him leaving a molten crater in his chest and threw him back, he tumbled down the hallway slamming back against the door he came through.

Kit didn't have time to think about what she had just done, Brax smiled briefly in gratitude and dragged her away from the smoking man at the end of the hall.

After more twists and turns in the sterile white corridors, they finally came across the room where the staff entered the facility. Knowing that there was always someone on the desk they both halted and panted quietly, trying to catch their breath after their mad dash across the institute. Brax made to reach for the handle but saw it was already open, they both gave each other a nervous look before Brax took command again.

"Get ready to attack." Was all he said as he threw open the door. With barely a thought, Kit clicked her fingers and readied the fireballs, steadily spinning on the ends of her tail in wait.

Looking towards the desk, they could see it was empty and the unconscious bodies of a handful of the staff members were littered on the ground, most were bound with thick rope.

There was a man across the room, in resplendent robes of shimmering purple and gold, a magnificent snowy white beard fell to his knees, he would have looked grandfatherly if it weren't for the almost military like look of apathy on his face.

Neither Kit, nor Brax recognised the man and both looked at one another to gauge their next move.
"You are patients here, are you not?" The elderly man asked them briskly, his wand already in hand. Kit briefly considered the wand she had hidden in her pocket, but didn't know what she could possibly do with it, having never been shown how to use one and mostly closing her eyes on instinct when one had been pointed at her.

Brax was a silent man by nature, he said very little but when he did speak, people listened.
"Not anymore." With that he charged towards the old man, Kit hesitated for only a moment and reached out as if to stop him. She could feel the power radiating off the wizard and didn't want Brax to go anywhere near him.
"No, wait!" A red light quickly hit Brax and he surprisingly fell to his knees. Many times, Kit had watched on fearfully as Brax took the red spell straight to his chest, she had seen him take so many of those spells before he was even out of breath. Yet this man only needed one to break his stride.

"Brax!" Losing control of her fire, it withered away as Kit ran towards him. A second red light had already left the wand of the frowning wizard and another blue one followed swiftly.

Both hit Brax before Kit could reach him, the first knocked him out, the second bound him in rope and threw him back across the room at the same time. Changing course, Kit skidded to a halt next to Brax and began tugging on the ropes cocooning him.

"If you are indeed a patient here, I need you to come with me, you will come to no harm under my care." The quiet voice cut against her helpless struggles, Kit turned in a panic to the wizard her eyes darting to his readied wand and back to his face. Today had been stressful beyond anything she had endured before, being a test subject meant pain, but after a while you knew what to expect. She had never tried to escape before and knew anyone that tried wasn't heard from again.

This however, was different. For all she knew this man could be taking her to be killed like the others at the medical bay. Shaking hard, she crouched low over Brax, shielding him with her body, she didn't even hear that a low snarl that escaped her lips.
"You hurt him!" She accused furiously, she dipped her head slightly as her tails curled over her back pointing towards him, ready to attack.
"I can assure you, your friend is not injured only unconscious, I have no fight with you. My friends and I have come to shut down this place, we want to rescue those trapped here. That includes both of you. Will you please come with me?" Of all the things Kit expected this man to be, her saviour was not one of them.
"What if I don't want to?" Inside her heart was begging to be taken away but she had no idea what awaited her, and she didn't trust this wizard.
"I'm very sorry, but you do not have the choice. This institution will be taken over by the ministry and thoroughly dismantled, there is no home for you here. Won't you please come with me?" He reached a friendly hand out towards her.

Kit hesitated, she didn't know what to do, almost instantly she turned the question over to Sun.
'I don't know what the outcome will be, but it appears that he will take us whether we want to go or not. The question is, how long do you think you could struggle against his power before the pain becomes too much for you? It is better that he doesn't know of your weakness, he is already too powerful for you to get away from. More ammunition might be our death.'

Turning to look at the bound form of Brax she sighed, she was utterly exhausted and had barely recovered from training a few hours ago. There was no way she could get away, let alone with the heavy Brax in tow, and after saving her, how could she consider abandoning him?

"Alright, I'll go with you" She muttered softly, eyes falling to her sleeping friend. "But no more magic, or I'll burn you!" Kit threatened lamely, she looked him in the eye as she straightened without taking his hand, still keeping Brax behind her.
"I understand. I will not attack you without provocation, I swear it." The conditional promise made Kit a little worried but it was the best she would get under the circumstances. "Now would you be so kind as to tell me your name?" Kit looked at him cautiously, she didn't want to tell this man anything but it was written on her jacket, so there was no point in lying to the wizard.
"My name is Kit." She mumbled.
"Its a pleasure to meet you Kit, my names Albus Dumbledore."