A/N: Guess who's baaaAAAAaaaack? ^_^ Me! And Nakita and the gang! Gosh you guys...I'm so, so, so, so sorry for being gone so long! I know you must hate me by now, but I couldn't help it! I had a bunch of things that screamed for my attention, so I had to put this off...and then put it off some more...and then finally give up and just finish the crap I had to take care of so I could have plenty of time to write again. *goes and cries in corner*
Also, I will mention that I had a S E R I O U S case of writer's block :( It was terrible! My mind was just...blank. Now, to take some time to talk to my reviewers (even though I know you guys just wanna jump back into the story)
Rydrake011: Thank you for your lovely suggestion. As you will see, I took it to heart XD (and to everyone else, you should thank Rydrake, cause this chapter would not have happened as soon as it did otherwise) :P
XxKyuubiRoxX: Thank you so much! :D You made me very happy with your comment and I'm super glad that you like this story! And, yes, I know Kiba's a little OOC, but I tried really hard not to do that! :( And thank you :D I had help from a friend to find a name for my OC. XD
GuardianofMoon: Whoa, whoa, whoa! XD We can't kill Jaguara yet! XD But I appreciate the thought!
XtreamDreamz: Keep on being sexy! ;)
LoLfUdGeSiClE: Well, the snow and sleet won't stop me now! And, once again, love the name change :) Sounds eerily familiar...XD And you'd better get to writing, missy! If I can do it, so can you!
And to all you others...! *blows big kiss* Thank you for taking time out of your busy day to read and review to this story! You've made me one happy writer! I hope you guys know how wonderful you all are!
DISCLAIMER: I own NOTHING! Now let's get it on!
The sound of the cell door grating open woke me with a start. Kiba immediately felt my body move and acted accordingly. His hair stood on end and an instinctual growl rumbled in his chest, just underneath the hand I'd placed there. I jumped up from the bed and quickly began scrabbling around for my clothes, tripping over the scattered pillows and blankets. Kiba followed me, dragging his jeans up his legs and deftly fastening the button before leaning down to help me collect my things. The door had stopped opening and stood still, air from the outside tunnel breezing into the warm room. No soldiers appeared...for the moment. I breathed a sigh of relief and tugged my parka down over my head and straightened it against my legs.
Once we were both fully dressed, we turned to face the oncoming threat with human teeth bared and fingers clawed. Finally, a booted foot appeared around the opening and a burly guard strode into the room holding two shock collars in his hand and a baton in the other. Kiba snarled and tensed against me, pressing me behind him and spreading his arms and legs out to form a defensive shield with his body. I peered over his shoulder at the guard and lifted my lips in a quiet snarl, air hissing through my teeth menacingly. The guard paused for a moment, looking slightly unsure. His baton made a snapping noise and he raised it slightly in front of himself, preparing to defend if necessary. Two more guards entered the room and flanked the first man, weapons glinting devilishly from the light spilling into the room from outside. They glanced at each other and chuckled before advancing upon the two of us. Kiba backed up, pushing me along behind him until my back pressed against the wall. I growled and tried to step up beside Kiba to help him, but he would have none of it and pushed me back behind him.
"Looks like your little infiltration didn't go quite as successfully as you'd planned, huh, mongrel?"
"Yeah, now you've just made more trouble for your little lover."
"Jaguara's gonna be twice as ruthless to her now, just you wait."
The guards began cackling at their own jokes and took two more menacing steps toward us. Kiba snarled again and finally cracked, launching himself at the nearest guard and grabbing him around the throat with his now-wolf teeth. The guard grinned wildly, daring to laugh as Kiba's grip tightened. I smirked, knowing that the guard only had seconds before a jet of blood squirted from his neck and he toppled down dead, but...nothing happened. At least, nothing I had expected.
The guard punched Kiba in the ribs and sent him flying. Kiba, unfazed, landed on his feet and continued glaring down the guard, who yanked the collar of his suit down to expose his throat, which was manacled in thick metal. There were little chinks where Kiba's teeth had scraped the surface, but nothing more. The man laughed again and pointed at Kiba. "Not so tough now, are you, pup?" He laughed again and motioned to the other two guards. They quickly reformed behind him, one on either side, and produced two thick shields from behind their backs. The shields also crackled with latent electrical energy. The sound promised a swift reprimand if touched. I flinched. If those things even brushed across Kiba's fur, he'd get quite a nasty shock. Maybe even lethal.
Suddenly, a plan formed in my mind. While the guards were busy focusing on Kiba, I slithered up behind them and shifted also. Quietly, I sprung from my crouched position and dug my claws into one of the mans' backs; however, nothing happened. There was no blood, no strangled scream. He didn't even reach behind him to fling me away. I peered through the openings in the four slits I'd made in his black suit and my eyes widened. He was wearing the same metal as the other man, only all over his body! I hadn't even made a dent! I slid off his back and to the floor, swiftly springing away from him as he spun around and lashed out with his shield. He yelled and stampeded towards me, shield and weapon raised. I growled and prepared to spring away yet again.
But, before I could move, a chain suddenly appeared in a panel on the wall and wrapped around my two back legs, effectively holding me in place as the man's baton crashed down on my head. I yelped and thudded to the floor, eyes trying to remain open as black dots began dancing in my vision. My whole body reverberated from the after shocks of the stinging blow, making it impossible for me to even think about moving. I whimpered and tried to find Kiba before the darkness consumed me entirely. He was up against the far wall, dancing in and out of the other guards' legs as he evaded their erratic swings. Every once in a while, his eyes would flicker over to my prone body and he'd send a questioning tendril of thought out in my direction. Each time, I tried to answer, but everything was becoming hazy and it was becoming increasingly harder to think straight.
Inevitably, just as Kiba began to scrabble in my direction, one of the guards got lucky and landed a glancing blow to his left shoulder. It was just enough to catch him off guard and slow his movements so that the others could grab him and push him to the ground. They began mercilessly beating him with their batons, laughing and yelling as they did so. I struggled to stand, wincing at the pain in my head, but it was no use. Kiba didn't even yelp. The last thing I remember before blacking out was the sad, sad look on his face as the batons continued to pound into his submissive flesh.
"Wake up, you stupid beast!"
A slap to the face.
"I said...wake...up!"
Two more slaps.
"Damn you rotten mongrel!"
Something hard slammed into my chest and I flew backward, or...at least...what I thought was backward. My back slammed into an unseen fore and I crumpled to the ground in a pile. I didn't want to open my eyes, so I kept them shut. Maybe if I couldn't see my attacker, he would go away. Maybe if I didn't open my eyes, the pain would disappear. Maybe...maybe...
"Nakita."
My left eye twitched.
"Nakita!"
My legs moved.
"NAKITA!"
My eyes opened. There was a bright light. It brought tears to my sensitive orbs. I squinched them shut again. Even the heavenly voice calling to me couldn't make me open them again. There was just no way. I wanted to die. To leave this world of captivity and to soar through the heavens without a care in the world or a chip on my shoulder. Yes, that sounded nice. Real nice. I smiled and drifted back into that welcoming black ocean.
The voice continued to call, but I did not listen, nor did I care. It became increasingly persistent, but I closed my ears and heard no more. This vast ocean was warm and rocked me gently in its waves. The water felt nice. It soothed away the pain and replaced it with heat. Although, disturbingly enough, there were voices even here.
"She'll be fine now. I've applied the special ointment to her wounds. They should heal in less than an hour. Before we know it, she'll be up and growling at us from the dark corner of her cell."
"Are you sure? There is no lasting damage? None at all?"
"No my lady. None whatsoever. She will be completely repaired and fit to breed again."
"Ha! She has defied me for the last time. There will be no second chance at that happy ending for her."
"L-Lady Jagaura?"
"When she wakes up, chain her to the wall and make sure she can see into the opposite cell. Her punishment has only just begun."
"Of-Of course...Lady Jaguara..."
Strange...how could Jagaura be in my dream? This doesn't make sense...does it?
The ocean called to me again and beckoned me into its tight embrace. I went without protest and sank into its murky waters.
This time, when my name was called, I awoke. I blinked several times to clear the tears that immediately sprang to the corners of my eyes, then pulled myself to a sitting position. I'd long since shifted back into my human guise, so the sight of my dirty fingernails twisting into the fabric of my parka did not faze me. I looked around quietly, eyes only half open. I was in another cell, but a much less fabulous one. This one was motley and smelled of ripe sewage. The skin of my nose wrinkled as I made a disapproving face and scooted closer to the wall I'd slammed into earlier. My boots made a scuffling sound that seemed to reverberate throughout the entirety of the cell.
The wall was clammy and felt a little slimy when I leaned my head back against it. The cold seeped into my hair and through to my scalp, which started to itch terribly. Flinching, I pushed away from the wall and crawled to the middle of the cell, where there was some moldy straw shaped into a haphazard mattress. When I dropped my body into the mass of hay, dust puffed up around me and bugs went skittering in fear. One was brave and crawled up my boots and onto the skin of my thigh. It sat twiddling its antennae, seeming to look at me sorrowfully from its tiny bug eyes. I sniffed and flicked it away with my finger. His life, like mine, was inconsequential and amounted to nothing. I sighed. When did I become a poet?
A sudden noise from across the room reminded me that a voice had been what woke me. I picked myself up from the straw and looked out of the bars of my cage. Across from my cell was another cell decorated similarly, and it, too, held a prisoner. I squinted, trying my best to bring him into focus. There seemed to be some kind of haze in the air, making it difficult even for my senses to penetrate it. Finally, the blob took on a slightly human shape, and I realized with a gasp that it was Kiba. He was sitting propped against the bars with one hand hanging through the holes and the other gripping a single bar. He was looking at me in relief, probably glad to see that I was still alive. But, unlike me, his eyes still held the glow of life, and he didn't look half as bad as I felt. I envied him just then.
"Nakita, are you alright? Can you see me?"
I nodded once: affirmative.
"Do you hurt anywhere?"
I flicked a cursory glance down at my body and rolled my shoulders. I shook my head. Nope. A-Ok.
"Good." He settled back on his heels with a happy sigh and continued to stare at me with those deep, sea-green eyes. After a while, his smiled pulled into a frown and his eyes became brooding. For some reason, that bugged me.
"What?" I snapped, shaking him out of his trance.
"You look different. Is something wrong?" He looked genuinely concerned, eyes pleading with me to answer truthfully.
My left eye twitched again and a snarl warped my features. "Of course something's wrong! We're locked in a cage waiting for that...that bitch to come fuck with us! How else am I supposed to feel? Huh, Kiba?"
My aggravated shouts echoed through the prison and Kiba flinched at the harshness of my tone. I couldn't find it within me to care much, so I "hmphed" and settled more comfortably into the straw, patting it down in places and situating my legs under me so I had something dry to sit on. Kiba watched me, not saying a word. He still had that stupid, surprised look on his face that was beginning to grate on my nerves.
"Nakita...?"
"No! Just...no, Kiba. I can't take this anymore! She's done so many evil things...I would rather die than continue trying to reach a place that doesn't even exist..."
"It does exist! I know-"
"How do you know Kiba! You've never been there! No one has, because it's not REAL!" I pounded my fist on the floor of the cell and closed my eyes against the onslaught of fresh tears that begged to be released. I didn't care anymore. Jaguara had taken everything from me. My friends, my family, my love, and my chance at motherhood. If I died, there wouldn't be anything left for her to take. Kiba and the others could break out of here and find their own way to Paradise, but they could count me out. I was done. Finished.
"Nakita, what's wrong with you? You've never acted like this before. It's like...it's like you don't care..."
"What gave you that idea?" I said sarcastically. I turned my back on him and buried my face into the crook of my elbow, where it lay resting on the tops of my knees. Subconsciously during the fight, I'd pulled them to my chest, almost as if my body was trying to protect itself from the grief and despair that was slamming into me. I was beginning to see the world through a new pair of eyes, a world that was full of disappointment and sorrow. A place where there was no Paradise, and wolves were bred into slavery for humans. Isn't that how it worked? Isn't that what the world really was?
"You're wrong." Kiba's gentle voice floated past my defenses and into my ears, making them twitch. Against my better judgment, I lifted my face from my arms and turned my body to face him, eyes looking at him questioningly, but with a veil of loathing.
"You're wrong..." he said again, pushing himself to a standing position. "There is a Paradise. It's out there, and no matter what you think, I'm going to find it." He looked up and locked eyes with me, holding me captive with his passion. "And I'm taking you with me, whether you like it or not!" He growled and threw himself at the cell bars. They wiggled under the force of his attack, but nothing more. He snarled and tried it a second time, putting more force into the jump. My eyes widened when the bars bent outward about an inch, and even Kiba stopped to admire his handiwork.
"Kiba, are you insane? Do you want to alert the troops?" I screamed at him, launching myself at my own cell door. My teeth clenched and I hissed at him, eyes starting to go hazy from the sheer force of my anger. "Even if you do break out, they'll find you! And kill you! There's nothing you can do to prevent it! So just stop already!"
When Kiba continued to pound into the bars, I sucked in a deep breath and prepared to scream again, but another voice cut me off.
"That doesn't sound like the Nakita I know!" Hige.
"Yeah, what's the matter with you? Have you already given up without a fight? Are you that much of a coward?" I snarled. The second voice definitely belonged to Tsume.
"Nakita, please! Don't throw everything we've done so far away!" Toboe.
"Just trust us, Nakita! Don't give up!" Blue.
I sighed and leaned my head against the cold bars. Kiba had stopped trying to escape long enough for the others to inject their little speeches, but as soon as they stopped he resumed his useless attack. I closed my eyes and let the sounds of my friends' bodies thumping against the bars roll over me. How did they even get here?
I answered my own question: They followed Kiba, of course. They would always follow him, even if he led them straight into hell. Which is basically what he'd done. Yet they didn't begrudge him for it. They simply forgave him and continued following his lead. The simpletons. If they hadn't of come for me, none of them would be here. They could be safely tucked away in some cave far outside this city, where they were free to run wild and not have to look over their shoulders. Because Jaguara already had what she wanted. Me.
A shriek from one of the cells piqued my interest, and I glanced up toward the sound. Kiba had thrown himself so hard against the bars that one of them had popped free of its cemented hole and hung loose, hovering partway into the aisle. I sniffed and looked away. So what if he'd gotten one bar to come loose. That wouldn't help him much.
I looked away from him, turning my head so that I had a clear view down to where the others' voices had come from. Now I could see them as they copied Kiba and flung themselves into their own cage bars. Tsume, the nut, had done about as much damage as Kiba, while Hige, Toboe, and Blue'd barely made a scratch. There were some other cells on past them, but I didn't sense any life in them, so I quickly switched my gaze back to the other four. They were growling and snarling now, putting more effort into their escape once they realized how close Kiba had come to breaking the bars. I shook my head and backed away from the bars of my cage.
There wasn't any hope of escape. Soon now, soldiers would hear the noise and come running, and if they hadn't made it out by then, the guards would surely kill them. Who would want to keep a handful of delinquents around when you were trying to rule the world? Not then, for sure.
Just as I was beginning to fold my legs underneath me and squat down on the straw, a loud boom cracked the air. Startled, I straightened back up and ran to the front of the cell. Dust and sand were raining down from the ceiling and I could hear coughing coming from somewhere in the cloud of debris. The sand stung my eyes and I blinked to clear them even as I rubbed a hand across them. I began coughing too, inhaling the dirt that was pushing its way into my cell and choking on the dust particles. I waved a hand in front of my face, dispelling as much of it as I could before I tried peering through it to see what had happened.
As the cloud disappeared, a sight that I hadn't thought I'd see had me gasping and trying to clear my eyes again, but this time from shock. Kiba had finally busted through the bars, and they'd come loose from the ceiling, bringing down bits of cement and sand that had caused the death cloud to descend. He stood in the middle of his cell, eyes disbelieving. But, he quickly shook himself and jumped over the fallen bars, hurrying over to my cell and looking for some kind of release pad or lock. I knew he wouldn't find one. Jaguara was too good for that kind of stupidity.
He quickly became frustrated when nothing appeared. His eyes squinted and he wrapped his fingers around the bars of the cell. Desperately he tugged on them with all his strength, gritting his teeth and biting his lip, the chords in his neck standing out. I grimaced and tried to unlatch his fingers.
"Kiba, it won't work. Just go help the others if you're going to keep on with this madness. I already told you I didn't care what happened to me anymore."
"And I told you that you were coming with me whether you liked it or not!" He continued tugging, much to my disgruntlement, but I let him anyway, thinking maybe he'd tire himself out and give up. Miraculously, however, he did it! First one bar came free, then another, and then another, until he had all of them lined up neatly down the aisle and was holding his hand out for me to take. For a second, I stood looking at the preferred limb with hate, wishing he'd just leave me alone to rot, but after some consideration, I reached out and took it. His smile was brilliant as he tugged me out of the cell and into his chest, where he wrapped his arms securely around my waist and buried his face in my hair. Against my wishes, a tear rolled down my cheek and sploshed onto his forearm. He pulled back and looked me in the eyes, searching. I blinked, clearing the tears, but finally, finally, graced him with a small smile.
His hands came up to frame my face, and with that touch, everything began to look so much better. It was as if the rage and despair that had settled on me vanished beneath his warmth, and was replaced by hope and happiness. The next smile that split my face was genuine and brought an answering smile to his face as well.
"Um, hello? Could you two quit having a 'moment' and come help us!" Tsume's voice cut through the haze that had settled around us. My eye twitched and Kiba groaned while pulling away from me.
He grabbed my hand and tugged me along behind him as he headed for the others' cells. Together, we dismantled each cell and released our friends one by one. They hopped out and immediately latched on to me, giving me tight squeezes and a fist bump from Tsume. I couldn't quit smiling, and I would have been content for that moment to last forever, but an alarm suddenly blaring shoved us back into reality, and we all sprinted towards the exit, which were two double doors that blinked with a security pad. Must have been a new addition to this old fashioned cell.
While Tsume and Kiba pushed and prodded at random numbers, I took a quick look around and into the other cells. I was shocked to find that my earlier assumption that they were all empty was wrong. At least two of the four empty cells had a dark blob hiding in the corner. Curious, I stepped up to the cell on my left and peered into the darkness. The form shifted and squinched farther into the corner, letting out a soulful whimper. It sounded like a child. My heart ached at the sight, and I reached through the bars to try and comfort the tiny soul. But a sound from the cell next door froze me in place. The voice sounded oddly familiar, but I'd never been here before, so that couldn't possibly be. Slowly, I turned back around and sidled up to the cell, placing my hands on the bars and gripping them tight. That voice...
My eyes, now fully adjusted to the dim lighting, were quickly able to cut through the darkness and bring the figure into focus. The sight stopped my heart and froze my limbs. An icy hand reached into me and squeezed my heart tightly. I choked out a sob and tried pushing my way into the cell. Desperately, I stuck my hand as far through the opening in the bars as I could while choking on a hoarse whisper, "Brother!"
LoLpOpSiClE: Dun, dun, dun! O_O Left you guys with a little cliffy, didn't I? XD Oh, man...you guys hate me sooooo much...XD
But, hey! See that review button? If you click it, and send me a nice review, a new chapter will be soon in coming! I'm free now! So go ahead and let your fingers run wild! ~hugs~