Darkness was all that seemed to surround Susan as she groggily opened her eyes, a groan emanating from her mouth. As she sat up, a wave of pain began to sweep through her, flaring up and down her body from her feet onto her arms and to her head. It hurt whenever she moved a part of her body but at the same time this had reassured her she was, at least, alive.

Shame it doesn't tell you if you're okay she thought grudgingly as she rubbed her eyes and began to gaze at her surroundings, her blue eyes gradually adjusting to the darkness.

By the looks of it, she could feel herself in a kind of long, but quite thin cell, (it must have been small because she pushed herself up to rest against one wall and her feet spread out in front of her were just about touching another), with a metallic floor and walls and ceiling. Looking right, she saw that there was a kind of purple/red coloured haze about ten feet ahead of her and behind that was, what appeared to be though the darkness, a huge tunnel that stretched both left and right, though where they led to she could not tell. How did she get here anyway?

Her mind went into deep thought, but she gradually began to remember the events leading up to this. She could remember that she was in the forest outside Portland…yes, with Dr Cockroach and two other soldiers. Then what? Oh, yeah, they were on a scouting mission and were beginning to make their way back to the camp where the others were…then what? Oh, come on Susan, think! Ah, yes, then they were ambushed by a predator tank. Then…then she told the others to leave, and Dr Cockroach was not very happy about that but he went anyhow. Then she went out, at her giant size, to confront these creatures and then…if she remembered correctly, they fired on her and…and that was about it.

Speaking of her giant size, was she even still at it? Looking down at her hand, she saw that the ring was still on her finger, completely undamaged. Wow! Either the dragons just did not know about it or for some reason they just decided to keep it on her. Then again, upon remembering the ability of this piece of jewellery, they probably put it back on her so as to shrink her. Anyway, she still did not know where she was. Where had they taken her, it was obvious they had done something with her, but what and where was she? More importantly, could she get out?

Pulling herself to her feet, Susan began to limp over to the haze, her legs having not yet fully recovered from the blow dealt her earlier on and reached out a hand to touch it. A nervous voice in her head told her not to do so, probably warning of déjà vu with what happened last year when she tried to escape from the prison on Gallaxhar's ship and the electric field around her hurt whenever she touched it, though she was able to withstand the pain enough for her to escape. Would it work this time though?

It's worth a try she mentally said to herself. Better than sitting around in a cell waiting to see what happens

Her hand inched closer to the haze and Susan bit her lip in anticipation, fearing she would hurt herself again like last year, though this time it could be worse. She could probably…who knew…disintegrate her hand, or even her arm, or paralyze herself or something hideous like that. Her hand paused for a moment just a mere two inches from the haze as if it itself was debating whether to touch it, but Susan had to try because she needed to know whether she could escape from this cell or not.

Just then, a wave of light suddenly emanated from somewhere outside the cell and seemed to fill the entire tunnel, blinding Susan momentarily as she raised her arm out in front of her to shield her eyes, stepping back a few paces as well.

Then, as quickly as it came, the light vanished and Susan lowered her arm to be faced with almost complete darkness once again. Questions immediately began to run through her head. What was that all about? Was it something happening? Or was it something, or someone, entering the tunnel? If it was, why? All the terrible prospects quickly began to fill her brain. Were they sending someone to torture her, probably for information on the guerillas she had been with? Or was it to kill her? Fear gripped her and she withdrew slightly from the haze.

Light pattering sounds echoed up and down the tunnel, breaking through the haze and reaching Susan's ears. She gulped and stared out into the darkness, her heart rate beginning to go erratic. Those pattering sounds were…were footsteps. She was right! Someone was in the tunnel with her.

"W-whose there!" she said anxiously, fear gripping her voice.

A light 'hmm' emanated from somewhere in the darkness ahead of her and a shape began to move towards her cell. Her eyes began to see the faint outline of a figure coming towards her and it was then a real sense of fear gripped Susan and she withdrew further into her cell as if it would be some refuge to her from this…figure that might try and attack her.

All of a sudden, a white light turned on from somewhere in the tunnel, lighting it up almost as if the sun was rising within in, blinding Susan again for a few moments before her eyes adjusted to it, either that or the light dimmed slightly enough for her to see properly. She could now see that the cell was a complete silver colour and so was the tunnel. In fact, she could even make out several doors on the walls of the tunnel opposite her, they being a slightly darker silver colour, almost like the colour of grey.

She could also see the figure in front of her, only he was one of the Kyzua dragons. He was quite tall, about maybe 6ft 3, maybe 6ft 4, and had more of an athletic trend to his body rather than a heavy build she had seen with many others in the past. The redness of his skin was slightly light, almost the colour of red they would use in crayons and colouring pencils. Though what really intrigued Susan was that rather than having a dark and aggressive look on his face, which would have reminisced her back to Gallaxhar when he had confronted her last year, he had more of a sympathetic look on his face. Now that would have relaxed her slightly, but it was the fact that he had both of his arms behind his back that wade her wary. Was he holding a weapon or some kind of device to…maybe torture her or read her mind or force her into talking or something?

"How are you feeling?" he asked her gently, almost as if he was worried for her.

Susan was slightly taken aback by this, but she did not lower her guard. "Um…I-I'm fine," she replied.

The dragon nodded and raised one of his hands to press something on the wall to the right of the entrance to her cell. The haze withered and disappeared and the dragon stepped forward into her cell. Susan took a pace back, fear rising into her again, not knowing what the dragon was going to do to her.

"You do not need to be afraid of me," he reassured her.

"Then…then what are you doing here?" she asked him, trying to put a bit of a firm tone in her voice but she could not get rid of the fear that came out with it.

The dragon responded by taking out his other hand from behind his back. What he held surprised Susan even more. It was a small metallic cup with an apple on top of it. Was he…was he offering her food and water?! This was…it was just…wow! She could barely begin to describe it.

"Eat," he told her. "You haven't fed yourself for a long time now. You need to be healthy,"

Susan's gaze shifted upwards from the cup and apple and looked him in his red eyes. "Why?" she asked, her voice now slightly more demanding. "What are you gonna do with me?"

"Nothing," the dragon replied. "We will not harm you, I promise you,"

Susan still did not fully trust him. Why should she? These creatures were invaders and after everything they had done, why should she listen to him, let alone believe him?

But…looking back down at the apple and cu in the dragon's hand, she was feeling a bit hungry, which was added to by a low growl from her stomach. The dragon stifled a laugh.

"Come, you must eat," he said to her. "You will do yourself great harm if you don't,"

Susan sighed and, gingerly, took the apple and cup from his hand, though she looked into the cup and shook it slightly to see if there was anything in it. No, there was nothing. Okay, what about the apple? She brought it up to her mouth and took a small bite and chewed it. Well...it did not taste any different. In fact, it was completely normal. Looks like this dragon was telling the truth after all.

"Well…thank you," Susan replied.

The dragon smiled. "It is fine," he replied. "Come, sit," he offered.

She did so, sitting down on the floor with her back against the wall. The dragon sat down next to her, crossing his legs and resting his arms on his lap, watching her as she took another bite from the apple, chewed and swallowed that mouthful and then drank some of the water, sighing in relief as she felt the refreshing liquid slide down her throat.

"Do you feel better now?" he asked her.

Susan nodded and gave him a small smile. "Thank you," she replied.

Silence fell between them again for a moment as Susan continued to eat the apple. It was when she was about a quarter of the way through it that she felt she had to ask him something.

"So…what are you gonna do with me?"

"Take you back to your family," he answered, which did shock her to the point where she almost dropped her apple. What! T-they were going to take her back to her parents!

Even after a few moments, she still was not able to comprehend it. "W-what? Did you say…y-your taking me back to my parents?"

The dragon nodded. "Yes. We know where they are, in a large city near where you used to live. You will be taken there in a few days, though you must realize that trying to leave will be extremely forbidden,"

Susan nodded lowly, gazing momentarily down at the cup of water, which was nearly finished, only being about another mouthful left. She drank that and set it down next to her, the tapping of metal hitting metal the only thing penetrating the silence of the cell.

"So…who are you?" Susan asked him, setting her apple back on top of the empty cup.

The dragon held up his hand. "Taiko," he greeted.

She raised her hand and shook his. "Susan," she replied as they released. "So what are you planning to do here, Taiko? With me, I mean? Why did you keep me alive?"

He just shrugged. "You were brought back in a cold state. Plus, with you being the size you were, it really did amaze us that you could hold such power, so we decided to bring you back alive,"

"What…f-for you to…like, I dunno…dissect me or do tests on me or something? Or were you trying to take the quantonium from me?"

"No, nothing like that!" another pause hung between them for a moment. "I will say, though, Susan, you were lucky you were caught by regular soldiers and not the Sankiar,"

Susan stared at him questionably. "Who are the Sankiar?"

"The elite soldiers of our army, identifiable by the badges of so called 'honour'-" he added a disgusted and sarcastic tone on the word honour. "-On their arms and, as I said, you were lucky we had found you rather than them,"

"Why's that?"

"They would have killed you then and there,"

"Oh. Well, that's not really the first time something like that had happened to me,"

Taiko raised an eyebrow. "This happens to you often?"

Susan shook her head. "Only once, but it was a year ago when I was captured by some squid-like alien called Gallaxhar,"

Upon hearing that name, Taiko's eyebrows dropped to a displeased expression, adding to the same look that was etching across his face.

"Oh, him!" he muttered un-approvingly.

"You heard of him?" Susan asked.

"Unfortunately, yes. His race was always known for being weaklings and fools," he chuckled to himself. "I myself was happy to hear that he destroyed his own species. What happened to him anyway?"

"He died when his ship blew up after he captured me and my friends came to rescue me-" she stopped dead and realization struck her as if she had run headlong into a brick wall. Oh God! Dr Cockroach and the mission! They would be coming here soon, right into the depths of this ship. "They might come and rescue me again," she muttered under her breath as she looked down at the floor, lost in thought for a moment, though this did not go unnoticed by Taiko.

"Sorry?" he inquired.

Susan snapped out of her thought and shook her head, blinking several times. "Oh, nothing, nothing!" she answered quickly.

Taiko looked at her suspiciously but said nothing more, though he did begin to wonder in his mind what it was she was a little nervous about. She did know something that he did not, or at least that is what he thought, but he brushed it aside, knowing he had other duties to attend to.

In fact it was those other duties coming into his brain that made him realize he had to get to them and he got up.

"I must go now, Susan," he told her and turned to walk towards the cell entrance.

"Wait, Taiko!" Susan said, stopping him as she got up from the floor. He turned to face her. "Can I ask you something?"

He nodded. "Go ahead,"

"You have your family visiting you now, don't you?" she asked. Taiko was a little surprised by this question, which Susan saw because his eyes went a little wide, but he nodded. "Well, this may sound a bit weird but I know wouldn't be really happy about me if I was in your position and I had my friends killing others. Doesn't your family feel that way?"

Taiko sighed. "Of course they do, Susan," he replied lowly. "But…you must realize that it is the way of life for the strong to take whatever opportunity they have to survive and to push aside and, if necessary, destroy the weak," he was speaking sorrowfully as if he was admitting his regret. "I do not like it either, but…I cannot go against what natural law requires us to do. After all, you would do the same if you were in my position, regardless of what anyone else thought of your actions," He paused for a moment to let that sink into her and turned his back to her to walk out of the cell. "And, besides, I cannot go against the order of my masters. If I do, then…" he trailed off, not wanting to think of, let alone talk of the consequences of him doing something like that.

"But don't you personally ever have… Oh, I don't know…any self-morals or anything? Don't you ever think you could disobey your masters and put morals first?"

Another sigh passed Taiko's lips and he walked out of the cell, but stopped in the doorway and looked over his shoulder at Susan.

"That part of me died a long time ago, Susan," he told her sadly.

The expression on her face saddened, her blue eyes lowered to look at the floor, defeated.

"I will send someone to collect your food when you are finished," he told her and activated the haze barrier and stepped out into the tunnel once again, the light there going out and filling it with darkness once more.

Susan could make out his shape much easier this time, thanks to the light emanating from her cell, and watched as he reached the wall on the other side of the tunnel. A door opened, causing a wave of bright white light to sweep into the tunnel, but Taiko paused in the doorway and looked once more back over his shoulder at Susan's cell for a moment as if regretting leaving her. Then after a moment, he shook his head and walked out into the white light and the door closed behind him, leaving the only light in the tunnel now to be from the cell.

Susan sighed and walked back over to where she had left her cup and apple and sat down next to them, resting her back against the wall behind her. Sadness clouded her mind now that she realized that she was on her own now and that any hope of trying to make the dragons see some moral sense was going to be hopeless. Speaking of hope, she knew now that her only hope was for Dr Cockroach and the others to launch that counterstrike on the ship and free her, though it seemed that nope she had fully realized the likelihood of it failing because Dr Cockroach was the only other monster left with them. Last time, He, Link, Bob and Insectosaurus had come to free her as a team, but even then they had only just managed to do so. With only one now, the chances of it failing were…well, to put it mildly, through the roof, and that was just without the fact that with families here the Kyzua were going to be more wary than ever in protecting them.

Bringing her knees up to her chest and embracing them tightly, Susan exhaled another sigh and rested her head on them.

"We really are on a tightrope now," she muttered sadly to herself.