Chapter 4: The Rescue and The Truth

Eighteen-year-old Dante made his way slowly into the kitchen, just getting up and was drowsy still. He made his way and got his breakfast and sat at the table in front of his advanced science book and groaned. He didn't feel like doing anything. He heard a small giggle and he looked over at Rose and just tilted his head. She was dressed in a turtleneck no sleeved gray shirt, and she had khakis on… guy khakis, an old pair of his to be exact. Her deep brown hair was in a single braid, two strands framing her face. He just kind of stared at her. She wasn't the prettiest, and was awfully annoying at times… but... he had grown close to this felis sapien. First, he thought it was just sibling stuff but now…

"AWWW!" she cried. Dante snapped out of it and looked at her. She was glaring at her book like it was going to kill her. "This freaking piece of SHI…" before she could finish a deep voice stopped her. "Rosalyn Angel!" She looked up at Daniel innocently. "Hello…" she said softly, an innocent look on her face.

"What have I told you about saying that word?" he asked.

"Its bad and I shouldn't use it… Dante is a bad influence." she piped, looking at Dante. Daniel glanced at Dante. His face turned to shock.

"Buh… wah… I didn't say it!" he stammered, going red in the face. Daniel turned and walked away. Dante glared at Rose. How could he like someone who blamed things on him?! Rose looked back, a sweet smile on her face.

"Had to blame somebody," she said, going back to her algebra, mumbling about her stupid pencil.

As the summer sun shone down on the earth below, there wasn't much relief but the shade and the breeze. Daniel was sitting in the shade, reading up on the latest sciences and moves that Capsule Corp. was doing. Down at the pond at the bottom of the hill, two figures relaxed in the completely shaded spot. The trees surrounded the pounce, several small beams of light escaping the leaves. A tall boy with lavender swimming trunks swam around in the water. He looked over at Rose, who was dressed in a black swimsuit with aqua diagonal stripes on one of her hips of the suit, who was setting out her towel over a chair. Dante splashed around and glanced at Rose.

"Come on! Get in, the water is fine, a little cool, but fine!" he said, splashing some more. Rose looked at it. Dante saw the look in her eyes and knew she was going to chicken out. Why wouldn't she? She was half cat. Next thing Dante knew, a loud splash was heard and he was soaked as if he wasn't before. He looked over, water being squirted into his face from the mouth of Rose. She giggled and dove underwater. Dante grinned and dove after her.

Rose swam deep, her eyes adjusting to the dim light and the water instantly. Dim sunbeams could be seen, lighting up a couple of places under the water. The water was warm yet somewhat cool once she swam deeper. Dante swam up behind her and shoved her tightly, chuckling in his mind and waited for rose to turn around. She did so and looked up at him, a smirk on his face. She scrunched up her nose while Dante swam back up to the top. She kicked her legs back, starting to run out of air, and tried to swim to the top. Yet that didn't happen. Her foot smacked a dead log and stuck there, some water plants wrapping around her ankle as she jerked around. She began to free her foot as Dante reached the top. He crawled out and grabbed his towel and started to dry off, laughing softly.

"You should have seen the look on your face Rose." his mature voice rang. He laughed more and turned around. No one was there. He dropped his towel. "Rose? Rose?! Rosalyn! Where are you?" he shouted. He waited a minute more and still no one came up. He gasped softly. "Dear god no…" he said and dove into the pond to find the missing neko girl.

His hearing went from sounds of birds and the insects, to the muffled sounds of breaking water. His eyes took a while to adjust as he swam, looking around. Where could she be? He swam to where he had saw her last. He would have gasped, but he would probably gag on the water and run out of air. There was a limp figure just floating there, her foot stuck in the broken log. He swam and slowly removed her caught foot and swam up, his hands moving up her legs and one arm encircled around her waist as the other helped him to swim to the surface. Once he broke the surface, the sounds flooding into his ears again but tried to shake them off. He had to help Rose as fast as he could. He swam to the side of the pond and quickly got out and laid the limp figure on his sprawled out towel. He began to panic. What now? Then it hit him. CPR. He looked at the passed out body, and noticed she wasn't breathing. He sighed and began to apply CPR to the limp figure. He kept doing it, praying in his mind she'd be okay. She just had to be okay! He didn't want anything to happen to her, he cared to much to let her go without a fight. As he pressed on her chest again, a cough escaped followed by water. She began to cough a lot as she rolled onto her side. Dante's arm founds its way to her back and he began to cradle Rose, who slowly opened her eyes.

"D… Dante... Wha… what happened?" she asked softly. His other hand was now on her waist as he cradled her in his arms.

"You almost died… but I saved you, not to worry..." he responded softly. Rose hugged him, her face on his bare chest.

"Thank you..." she whispered. Dante mumbled a welcome, his arms around her.

Daniel was walking past the bay windows of the kitchen when he noticed two figures walking up from the pond. He walked over to them and got a closer view of the figures. Dante had an arm around Rose, Rose's nose scrunched up and a confused look on her face. Her ears where pointed down, and Daniel figured something had happened. Yet… when he noticed the look on Dante's face, he tilted his head. He could see in Dante's eyes that he had saved the neko girl… yet… it also held love for her as well. Daniel smiled. So Dante has fallen in love with the neko girl. He looked at Rose and couldn't tell. Her eyes were clouded and confused like she didn't know what to do about it. Daniel sat down at the table and began to sip the hot coffee in his hands. He gasped as his tongue was burnt. He sat it aside as the two walked into the room. He just smiled as Rose was close to Dante, a small patch of her brown fur was a little red as if it was a flush of embarrassment. He heard her murmur how she could have saved her self. Dante just had a small smile but looked up as he noticed his father. He removed his arm from Rose as she looked up. She blushed a little more and looked away.

"Excuse me.." she murmured and peeled away from Dante and walked toward her room, her face all confused.

Dante sat down on the other side of his father and just looked at the ground. Daniel studied his sons face and smiled. Maybe it was time Dante found out the truth about Rosalyn Angel, his little neko friend.

"Dante, how would you like to help me with my studies?" asked Daniel. Dante looked at his father, his eyes lit up.

"With you? That would be an honor… I'd love too!" exclaimed Dante. Daniel smiled.

"Follow me…"

The two walked down to the lab that was dark and gave Dante the creeps. He never had been down in the lab before. There was an eerie greenish light in the far corner that seemed to contain hair of some sort. Daniel flipped on a light and Dante's eyes seemed to dilate for a second until they adjusted. He looked around. It was so big! He never had seen anything like it. Tables were filled with papers, test tubes, and chemicals. He looked around and noticed a cage in the middle of the room. He walked toward it and saw two figures move. He moved closer and let out a gasp as the figures stared him right in the eyes. He stumbled backwards, falling over a table and turning it over. A loud crash of the test tubes and chemicals were heard and Dante yelped loudly. He retracted his hand. His skin had disappeared and he could see his tissue of his finger. His eyes went wide and looked at the rest of his hand that had cuts from the glass. He looked at his father who just smiled.

"What are they…" Dante spat out, his eyes wide. Was his father a mad man having all these chemicals and two felis sapiens in his lab? His eyes went as wide as they could go. Rose… "Are they? Rose's parents…?" he asked. All Daniel did was nod and Dante looked at Rose's parents. They looked older than what they should be; seeming all the tests had aged them more than their regular years. They seem to plead to them. Dante stood up straight and looked at his father. "Are you crazy! Why do you have her parents? What is going on in your mind!" he shouted, but found himself back on the ground, his hand on his cheek. Daniel was standing over his son, a glare on his face.

"Don't raise your voice to me young man! You will not tell Rose anything about this. If you do you'll be sorry…" he growled. Dante looked at the ground. He didn't want anything to happen to Rose, he had feelings for her. He couldn't let his father hurt her.

"Yes sir…" he said softly. Daniel helped Dante up and looked at his finger.

"Follow me…" he said and took Dante over to tend to his finger. "You have to watch out what you do while you are down here. Just be glad that wasn't the acid, it would have went through your entire hand…" Dante just nodded, looking at the ground.

Rose sat on her bed, a stuffed animal clutched to her chest. She just stared at the ground. She was confused, why did he save her? She could have saved herself. He could have left her to die. Yet she sensed something different about his attitude towards her. He seemed sweeter than usual. She was just confused about the whole thing. She wanted it to go back to normal, when he fought with her over the dumbest things. She remembered when she made him cry because she threw him to the ground and just laughed. She buried her head into the stuffed animal and closed her eyes. What was wrong with her? What was wrong with Dante? Why did she feel something inside her that she never felt? Where were her parents? Why was she there? What happened to her home she left so long ago to come live with Daniel and Dante? She looked up and clutched the animal closer to her. Why did she feel like flying high in the sky like everything was fine?

That night at dinner it was quiet. Dante's hand was bandaged and his eyes were cast down. His cheek had a bruise barely visible as well. Rose was still confused and poked at the lettuce on her plate. Her emotions were getting to her and it made her confused. Daniel was just Daniel, thinking about his research and his plans. He glanced at his son and snorted. He would be a threat, yes, but he had threatened to do something to rose and that whipped the horse.

"So how was your day Rose? You seem awfully quiet." Daniel spoke. Her ears lifted as she heard her name and looked at Daniel.

"It was fine," she said quickly, eating some of the bacon from her plate. Daniel smiled.

"Dante?"

"Fine… just fine." Dante murmured, as Daniel already knew the answer to the question.

"Daniel, where are my parents? Why haven't they come?" spoke Rose, her eyes shifting a little.

"Before I answer that, you need to take your pill." Daniel said, getting up from his seat. He disappeared and shortly reappeared with the pill. Rose took it and blinked a couple of times.

"It's dinner already?" she asked, eating the lettuce on her plate. Daniel smiled while Dante coward in his seat. He felt horrible towards Rose, having to keep secrets from her.

Daniel had explained about the pill earlier. He explained that it had an affect on the memory part of the brain. It makes you forget the recent events that happened in the last twenty-four hours and didn't return unless something sparked it again. The reason why Rose kept remembering her parents was due to her appearance. She seemed to remember every time she was lonely or was in deep though. Daniel explained how Dante would have to do this whenever he was gone and until his research was completed. Dante didn't want to, but he had to do it. He'd do anything for Rose…