I open my eyes weakly to bright sun, a crowded bed, and a serious lack of oxygen. I blink and all I can see is gray, like before I passed out. Man why can't a Diclonius have a normal life? Because you're a species that needs to be exterminated, Kurama's voice rings in my head. 'Species'…I'm a living being! Not…not some F*CKING piece of CR*P in the middle of the ocean! I shake my head and jerk my left arm, bringing a crash with it. I scream. That's right! I'm not something people can just push around! I'm not a monster…right? I'm…I'm not one of the monsters…I'm not Mariko…I'm me. Somebody tries to pin my arm down and my vectors react not so nicely. I scream as I try to fight them back in, although nobody knows that's what I'm doing. Something injects into my neck and my screams catch in my throat. My eyes grow wide and somebody lays a blanket up higher on my body, hiding my fists with balls of sheets inside the palms. A gentle, cool hand rests on top the right, my eyes scrunching together.

"Easy," a smooth voice belonging to the one who helped me with the queasiness settles. "You just had a bit of a rush. Just settle down."

I take several deep breaths, clearing my vision considerably, but when my irises slide to the end, I see a girl in the window. I widen my eyes and grip the sheets tighter. She has a crimson hood-jacket with medium white hair, her skin paler than snow. Her eyes are crimson, and I mean actual blood crimson. She glances inside and sighs once she locks eyes with me, sadness deep inside the pupils. This isn't good. I widen my eyes. Something is definitely wrong about her. She…she…she has something coming out of her back, but it's…three clawed vectors, thirty of them, clawing to her outline. I know there are still more of the arms to come out, and that's what is wrong. I scream; something about her too familiar that it makes my head pound. My neck jerks to one side, the needle apparently still there and ripping through my flesh and muscle. I scream louder and the hand grips my own tighter.

"Easy, there's nothing to be scared of," he lies.

I scream, something going through me. She's interesting…a childish voice smiles.

No, you know her orders, one close to my own snaps.

Come on! This is the Queen of Diclonius! Do you know what would happen if we get her blood? This time it was a maniacal, playing teen, maybe thirteen.

I'm telling you, twenty, if you lay anything on her…

Oh, I won't! But you have to think about fifteen…

Who the He** is Fifteen? WHO? All the stress makes my back go into an arch, two arms pinning my own down. Someone tries to eject another needle of something into the other side of my neck, but my vectors swat he/she back. This is too confusing, and I need oxygen to sort it out. My vectors don't kill, they just swat away. The one who helped me seems to be unaffected since he's still pinning my arms down. I open my eyes to the extent and stare at the light lime ceiling. Something's up there…a doll's ribbon. One of my vectors plucks it out and drops it onto my face or at it when it disappears with a single blink. Something comes in contact with my neck, sharp and painful. I shut my eyes.

"Can I get out now?" Nyuu begs. "Please, please, please!"

"ALRIGHT ALREADY YOU CAN GET OUT!" I snap. "Just listen to me on what to do, okay?"

She nods and I drift past her. I observe her being, but she's me, so I'm going to say 'I' did so and so, okay? Okay! So, I open my eyes once more, confused, yet remaining calm. I feel at the substance in my neck, only to feel a person's lips. I hear a simple grunt and the person detaches, revealing Zero, his lips and chin dripping with blood…my blood. I squeak (remember I'm Nyuu people at the moment) and fling the sheets over my head, trembling slightly. Someone pokes the blanket and I peek out of an edge to see Yuka. I leap up.

"Yuka," I cry, wrapping my arms around her neck, "scary people!"

She pats my head. "It's alright, (whispering: I think the stress made her change to her split personality)."

"Her spilt personality is a kid?" Zero mutters in disbelief.

"Hey, it's your fault she's here in the first G*D D*M PLACE!" Ruka defends.

Jeez she's a curser. This startles me and I leap off the bed, ducking behind Yuka trembling. That's when Nyuu spots none other than Yuki. "Nyuu?"

"What did she say?" the one who helped me asks.

"Oh…that…she said Nyuu…" Yuka sighs. "All that medication and stress must have made her personality switch."

No duh, I mutter inside.

"Wait, what does that have to do with her saying 'Nyuu'?" Ruka blinks at Yuka for a short minute.

Yuki smiles and starts to walk over. "Hello, I'm Yuki!"

I blink. "Yuri?"

Yuki smiles warmly. "Close enough."

'I' smile and clap my hands as if I just ran a marathon. "Nyuu!"

Yuki grins. "Huh, I wonder if we'll see Lucy again, she's a bit more understandable through the muttering."

I grin inside. There's just something about her that makes all stress go away, but I can't put my finger on it. I sigh and cross my arm, sitting against the black mass I'm forced to call the back wall of my head. 'I' frown and look down, shifting my feet. I can't hear what she's thinking, so I don't know what she's going to do! She sits on the ground and bonks her head once lightly. "Wake up."

I raise a brow. "I thought you wanted to get out in the first place?"

She bonks her head again, slightly harder. "Wake up."

"What is she doing?" Ruka asks Yuka.

"How should I know? I don't read minds!" Yuka sighs, sitting on the edge of the bed.

As everyone stares at me, Nyuu fails to notice. She bonks it again, even harder. "Wake up."

"Why do you want me to get out?" I demand.

"He sad," she pouts.

"What?"

"He sad so wake up," she bonks her head harder.

"Who's sad?"

"He," she replies with a face that reads 'what's that?' but not honestly confused. More like that blank-confused face you get when someone screams something random.

"WHO'S HE?"

"Wake up."

"UGH!"

I stand and cross my arms. She sighs and crosses her arms, now in the pouting stage. "I don't do your chores."

"Huh?"

"I don' do what you need to do!" this time I can tell she's offended I'm not getting her little 'life lesson'.

What I need to do? I blink. "I'm sorry, but I can't tell you what it is you're-"

She starts balling her eyes out. Zero walks forward and rubs her back gently. Why does he look sympathetic almost? Nyuu turns her crying eyes at him. "Lucy sorry! Lucy sorry!" I blink. She's saying the apology? Nyuu keeps balling. It's just like when Kota was upset about his sister…Nyuu wanted him to forget that sadness. She can always tell…I can't. "Lucy sorry for mean things! Lucy sorry!"

Yuka smiles a bit and everyone just stares at her like she's a mad-woman. I just stare at Zero's face, trying to read the emotions like Nyuu can. "Nyuu, that's nice of you, but I doubt he wants to hear it from you…" I sigh.

She keeps balling. "Lucy sorry! Lucy so sorry!"

I feel a sharp ping at where the Grinch's heart should be. I sigh. My heart is not supposed to be like this! Yet again, I'm not as cold as the F*CKING Grinch, you know (well, I guess colder with the murder streak, but I DON'T KNOW!)? Nyuu keeps balling, and she stops when Zero takes her in, patting her back lightly.

"Lucy, if you're there," he whispers. "I'm the sorry one."

I have my fair bets he's the one who shot me. I wouldn't blame him. I guess he's a vampire, since he bit me. I guess he bit me to help, since I was in a lot of pain and confusion. I guess…I guess apologies aren't so hard if you ball a lot. I sigh. "Nyuu, it's my turn to walk on our home."

She parts and bonks her head. "Wake up."

"Ask Zero to hit you or something," I suggest.

"Zero, Lucy wants to come out. Can you hit me with something?" Nyuu asks. Well, I didn't think she'd actually ask it!

The one who helped me smirks, Yuki and Yuka letting out 'aw!' in unison. Ruka rolls her eyes and smiles. Even I have to admit, it's cute. Zero sighs and grabs a lunch tray after setting the contents on the stand it was once on. "Wait, you're actually going to hit a girl?" Yuka and Yuki gap in unison.

Zero shrugs. "That's what she wants."

"NO! THAT'S WHAT NYUU-you know what, never mind!" I groan.

"You don't want to get out?" Nyuu asks.

"No, I just didn't think you'd actually ASK HIM TO HIT YOU!"

"But you said-"

"Nyuu I'll let this slip but the next time this happens DO NOT TAKE MY SUGGESTIONS SO LITTERALLY!"

She blinks and suddenly the tray comes hard on the right temple. Nyuu drops to the floor, unconscious, and we swap. She waves good bye as she goes to reside in the back of my mind, where she fills it with colorful dreams that I have to endure. I have to admit, it's nice to be with a child like Nyuu (even though she's my age) (she acts like a…kid, I can't describe it much). I come up to the surface, the pains in my neck gone and apparently healed by the bite. I scrunch my eyes and force them open, the place in color and everyone audible. I blink as I'm still on the floor and push so the hip and lower are the only things on the ground, besides the right palm. I rake my left fingers through the pink hair and rub a sore spot in between the horns, figuring out the cap was off. I blink and look back at Zero, who's now carrying a bent tray. Ouch.

"You seriously hit me so hard you bent that tray?" I gap. He nods. "Where you aiming for three days of unconscious Lucy/Nyuu or something, or where you just over-exaggerating the hit a…bit?"

He rolls his eyes and sets the tray on the stand next to some gray mush. Almost as good as the CR*P they fed us in the 'facility'. I fight to get on the bed, Ruka and Zero coming to support me. I rest my head on the pillow and feel my horns tingle as the bone grows, but I don't feel any immense pain. I raise a brow and stare at the faces looking down upon me. "Hey, how much drugs did you guys put me on?"

The one who helped me (I forgot the name alright?) grins kindly. "Maybe two of twenty different kinds of drugs were fed to you, why do you ask?"

I sigh. "If one of them was Crack, Pot, Marijuana, or poison, or all of the above or A-b or whatever, one of you is dying."

Ruka rolls her eyes. "I guess you're referring to the numbness?"

"Actually, yeah," I blink. "Can someone PLEASE explain that?"

"Well, Zero explained about what fully happened in the dorm, so we thought you'd want to not suffer through the soreness," Yuki shrugs. "Plus we never use it."

"Gee, thanks," I mutter, Yuka patting the area between my horns.

"Oh don't be so grumpy, Lucy!" she smiles. "At least you're alive!"

I glance over at the window. Who was that? "Hey, can one of you do me a favor and check if anyone's outside the window?" I ask.

Ruka volunteers and walks out the door, running practically. Zero sits on the edge of the bed next to my left knee, his hand resting on said body part. Yuki introduces the guy who helped me as Kaname Kuran, a dorm president in the Moon Dorms. I ask about why Zero was in the Day Class, and Yuki gives me such a thorough explanation, I start to drift off. Zero pats my knee awake and I blink up at the ceiling. Ruka comes back, one brow raised.

"Nobody's outside," she blinks. "Are you alright Lucy?"

I shrug. "Must be the medication," or I'm too late.