::big, wide eyes:: I'm getting death threats. Gleep! Okay, the following is a teaser. Prove that not only am I still working on this story...I'm also evil. So, this is a teaser and still has a few more pages to go before its complete. Fear ye not! I am working on this, I've just been...delayed.

And to the one reviewer...iie, Sadie wa baka ja aremasen.

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The door snapped open, cracking against the wall as Wraith entered the room, her eyes gong instantly to where Lynx was drabbed dejectedly on the couch. Before the boy had a chance to react, the larger female had him pinned to the floor.

"What *are* you doing lazing around in here?" She snapped at him, teeth closing distressingly close to the end of his nose, "They've done something with Kitten!"

"I know!" He snarled back, thrashing under her greater strength. He tried to bring his knee up and into her stomach, but she kept it securely trapped under her own legs.

"So? What are we going to do about it?" Wraith inquired almost sweetly, bringing her face down towards his and sniffing at the scent glands behind his ear. He went limp for a moment, then tensed, muscles gathering as he shoved upwards, managing to roll Wraith under him.

"What the hell can we do?! Against the Doctors, this place…." He shouted, voice trailing off on the last few words. Wraith blinked at him, her strange eyes seeming to soften.

"Well, well," she sang out, "Scared little cat going to give up…" Abruptly her head snapped sideways, teeth sinking into the soft flesh of his hand where he was holding her shoulders down. He screamed in protest, jerking back. She released her hold and lunged forward, trying to pin him again. He twisted to avoid bashing his head on the table and lashed out with his fist. She caught it and his other hand, pinning both above his head and kneeling painfully on his stomach. He gagged, face twisting up into a snarl at this more serious turn in their play fighting.

"I am tired," she hissed into his face, claws worrying the fragile skin on the inside of his wrists, "of dancing to the whim of others. Causing suffering toward my kin will no longer be tolerated!!"

"Ya think I like it any more then you?" Lynx demanded, a soft rumbling growl building in his chest, "That I enjoy knowing what these people could do to us?! I hate it! But there's no way to fight it! No escape! This is it, forever!" His eyes were misting up and he fought the tears that threatened. The growling in the back of his throat grew in strength as Wraith continued to confine him.

Wraith blinked. "You're bleeding. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bite you so hard." She shifted off of him, releasing his hand and bringing the injured one to her face. Gently, she lapped up the droplets of blood. Lynx pushed himself up and yanked his hand away.

"Stop it! That's gross." He frowned at her and checked over the wound. It wasn't too bad, just deep enough to break the skin. Already the bleeding had stopped. "You're such a freak!"

"Hmm." She shrugged, unbothered. "You're not really one to be calling names." She flicked her talons at some of the carpet fuzz, eyes downcast. The submissiveness in her demeanor bothered him-the wound wasn't that serious-and he lightly brushed his hand through her hair. She glanced up at him through her lashes, the wild green of her eyes glinting. "We shall no longer suffer the will of others." Her tone was deadly serious.

Lynx watched her uncertainly, the instinctive urge to follow/obey warring with his own fears. His nostrils flared as he took in her scent. "How?"

"I…" Here she faltered. "I am not certain, but," she growled softly at the disbelieve on his face, "But there is a way." Her lips curled up slightly. "Wait. Wait, what happened to make them lock Kitten away? You were with him today, what did he do?"

Lynx dropped his head and scooted back from her. "He vanished from tha club. I looked for 'im all over and couldn' find 'im anywhere. I went to tha hotel and he wasn' there either, so I headed back home. They *knew*," he stressed uneasily, aware of the growing hostility in her scent, "They knew he'd wan'ered off and ased me where he coulda gone. I told---I told 'em I came 'cross some people that had his scent on 'em. But it was such a touchy place, it coulda been nothin'."

A growl had been building steadily in Wraith's throat and she let it free in a soft scream. "Idiot. That hardly matters to the people here." She stood in a fluid motion, muscles rippling beneath her skin. "I've got business to attend to. Keep your ears open."

"Business?" He demanded, surprised. She always confused him when she bounced from deranged lunatic to reasoning individual. From the few glimpses he got, she must have been one smart cookie before the company started screwing with her.

"Even beaten puppies are useful." Wraith giggled at him, lashing out with her hand and shredding a chunk of the couch. Bits of fluffs drifted on the air-conditioned breeze. "Ja ne, baby cat."

In a flash of movement, Wraith was gone from the room, the door banging the frame behind her. Still crouched on the floor, Lynx stared after her. Breathing in deeply, he stood and began checking to make sure the bugs he'd disabled were still out of commission.

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The air was thick as cotton, chocking his throat and clogging in his chest. Duo twisted, lungs laboring to pull in more oxygen. His entire body ached, muscles drawn tight and throbbing with pain. Struggling to draw in air, Duo turned onto his stomach and pushed himself up with his arms. [Where am I? What happened?]

He opened his eyes and closed them just as quickly as the room spun around him. He had the vague impression of an expanse of empty blue gray. Hyperventilating now, he tried to focus on his surroundings through the swimming in his mind. Slightly soft surface under his hands and knees, the pressure of the air around him spoke of enclosed space, a steady pounding in his ears, but that could have been his own blood.

Details were getting harder to pay attention to. He yelled as the muscles in his left calf cramped up tight.

"Where did you go this evening at 7 o'clock?" The question drifted through his thoughts and he answered them without evaluating his words.

"To 'Scarlet Wings' with Lynx." Each word was panted out between a desperate gasp for breath. Fine tremors shook his frame. [I hurt…air. I need air. Please let me breathe, please.]

"How long were you there?"

"Hour or more." [Careful, careful.] A firm distant voice whispered out of the dizzy chaos. [They're searching for something, watch what you say.]

"Where did you go after that? Answers us honestly."

"Met up with (gasp) some guys and girls, went with them to their place." Shaky arms gave out from underneath him and he screamed as more muscles tightened unbearably.

"Then what happened. If you tell the truth, we will administer the drug."

The powerful, all consuming need to breathe nearly forced the whole truth from his lips, but something else fought it back. "We hung out together for a few hours." Ideas and possibilities flashed through his mind like lightening. "Drank, messed around. Nothing serious." He couldn't feel his body anymore for the pain. Talking was becoming steadily impossible.

There was a jolt in his right leg. Instantly, air started moving easier into lungs. Still not enough, more like when he first woke up. He thoughts cleared a fraction. [Interrogation. They're interrogating me.]

"Continue."

Duo babbled on, giving random details about their conversation and then about an argument where they wanted him to stay and he wanted to go back to his hotel room. He told how he had gone to the hotel a short while later, hung out there, and left when Lynx didn't show. In his mind, he selected random people from the many in the club and described them in vague, haphazard detail when asked.

Finally, finally they gave him a full injection and the air that filled him had never been sweeter. He didn't know how long he lay there, just breathing and trying to ease the agony in his body. After a time his head cleared, kick starting his thoughts.

[They know I wondered off where I shouldn't have been. Either Lynx told them or,] his mouth tightened, [They were tracking me. If the tracking part is right, them I'm in deep pucky. Especially if they somehow had listening devices on me. But if they did, then why the hell do this?]

He stared up the ceiling above him, noticing the steel panels held together with thick rivets. [Unless they just like causing pain, which I don't doubt for a minute. Or they could be testing me, see how much I'd lie them if given the chance. Then again, they may not know exactly what happened and this could just be scare tactics to keep me from wandering off again. Too many possibilities.]

Rolling his eyes in quick, random scan of the ceiling, he managed to pick out a camera in each of the two corners he could see from his position. [There must be speakers up there too, since the questioner had that 'voice of the universe' sound that comes from an intercom. And where speakers lay, so may audio bugs.] He twitched the leg that had been injected, remembering the compression of the hypo-spray. [But somebody had to have been in here to give me the drug. And I missed them leaving…damn.] He flared his nostrils briefly to try and pick up a scent.

There were several, more than he expected, all of them overlaid with fear and pain, but he didn't know which were recent and which weren't. Tests had proved that he could pick up scents well over a week old, but he'd never been able to determine the age of an odor without being told. No chance all the scents were recent; he would have noticed that many people regardless of how out of it he was, and it stood to reason that the room was used frequently.

[Well, that doesn't help me much. Fuck,] letting his eyes flutter closed, Duo sagged against the floor in parody of sleep. He rather doubted they'd be letting him out anytime soon; it was better if they thought him tired and weak from the withdrawal, though that gave him scant advantage. They knew his capabilities---they'd built them after all---and would be extra cautious.

[But if my luck is holding strong and they don't know I'm a Gundam pilot…well, I may yet have some tricks they can't guess. After all, they had nothing to do with those.] Senses tuned to any change in his environment, Duo lay and breathed and waited.

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To Be Continued.....

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REALLY!!