Charlie's P.O.V

=Charlie, where are you?=

'What the-?' I looked around the dim street trying to find the person who thought that thought. The only light was from the warehouse that I was heading towards. Although…it sounded like Talon. If it was Talon, then I must be getting close to the warehouse.

After that "fight" that I had, I stayed where I was. Even after darkness fell I stayed seated by the roots of the tree. Thinking. Trilox didn't say a thing to me either, I guess he could sense that I didn't want to talk at that particular moment. I was thinking about everything again. About how I got here, what I did, what I didn't do. Things like that. I couldn't help it. Being attacked like that brought a sharp perspective on what was probably happening. You don't have to be a genius to work out who that person was working for.

Doctor.

I guess it was also kind of obvious why he told that person to beat me up a bit. To show that he was still in control. It showed that he could have me back at any given moment, that he was prolonging my time outside because he only willed it. I guess I wasn't being paranoid then today when I thought we were being followed. I stopped in my tracks as I thought of something. 'How is tha' possible? We were being followed, so how did that person get up the tree without making that much noise? And without me seeing? Okay, he or she scared the squirrel out of place but there should have been more than that though. Maybe…?' I quickly dismissed that thought. 'Why would he? There would be no point in doin' that. It would have been a waste of money.' I started walking again. I then thought of something else which nearly made me stop again. 'Talon. If they know where I am then…' I gulped at my conclusion. 'What is he goin' to do to them? Would he bring them back, or have 'em… have them killed? Which would be better? To be able to see them every day but to see them die a little bit inside every day? Or to never see them again but at least I'll be able to remember them as they were…Unless…unless Doctor makes me forget again…'

"Charlie? Charlie!" before I knew it, something had tackled me. Because of what had happened before it's not too surprising that I thought it that same person attacking me again. The only thing I knew was that I was going to let it happen again. That's how I ended up on my back on top of the cold concrete pavement, my breath knocked out of me and the person who attacked me on top. And that's how I noticed that the person who was now attacking me was a lot shorter than before and wasn't wearing a hooded cloak either. "Where have you been?!" as soon as I had heard her voice I knew instantly who it was. Talon, who was right now, shouting in my ear. Very loudly. "You said that you'd be back before dark! It's been over two hours already! Do you have any idea how worried I've been?! You aren't blind, why didn't you start coming back as soon as it started to get dark?! It's dangerous to be out after dark!" I had an ironic smile when she said (or shouted) that.

'It's dangerous to be out before dark as well.' I thought.

"Ooooh. There is no way I'm letting you out of my sight again buster! If you do this again-!"

"Talon," a deep voice interrupted her, "how can he do it again if you won't let him out of your sight?"

Suddenly Talon was yanked off me and I saw it was Geode who had his arm around her waist while she was trying to get him off her. Behind him, from the light of the warehouse –which I nearly passed because of my musings- I saw Blaze and Zero.

Blaze walked up to me and held out her hand indicating that she wanted to help me up. After a little bit of hesitation I took her hand. After I was up on my feet again Talon latched herself on me after somehow freeing herself off Geode. "Um, Talon?" I said while looking down on her head, not returning her hug, "Would you possibly…could you maybe um, let go of me?"

"No." was her firm reply. I winced (hopefully unnoticed) as her arms tightened around me some more.

I heard Geode chuckle and I felt my face redden slightly -and it wasn't because of the cold either. "Talon, if you won't get off him would you at least loosen your hold on him so he can breathe?" he said.

I felt Talon relax her arms slightly around me and when I say slightly, I mean slightly. She barely moved her arms a centimetre from where they were before.

"Talon, I thought you said he wasn't your boyfriend?" this remark came from Blaze in a stage whisper.

That promptly made her get off me. "And I'm saying it again! He isn't my boyfriend!" my ears were beginning to ring again as she had been shouting pretty much all of the time since she tackled me to the ground.

"Um, you guys?" Zero's voice sounded quieter than it normally did. "If you haven't noticed, it's absolutely freezin' out here! Could we please continue this argument inside?  Where it's nice and warm?" when he said that I noticed he was shivering a little bit.

I saw Geode nod in agreement. "He's right. We really shouldn't be out here and I have a feeling that it's goin' to start rainin' again." he said while gazing into the cloudy night sky.

Following his stare I saw the almost invisible clouds gather seemingly right above our heads.  

As we walked back into the warehouse I glanced over my shoulder nervously to make sure that we weren't being watched. I blinked several times when I stepped into the not-exactly-but-still-pretty-bright lights of the warehouse. While I was getting used to the glare the others made themselves comfortable on the ground and waited for me.

"You mind telling us what happened?" Geode's voice was calm but it had a hint of more than a little annoyance. I looked down, not wanting to meet his calm stare.

'What can Ah say? Ah can't tell the truth, Ah doubt they'd believe me if Ah did. An' there would be so many questions. Questions Ah wouldn't be able t'answer… Couldn't be able to answer. Ah should have thought of what to say to them…'

'You could just lie you know.'

'Well, duh! Bu' wha' can Ah tell them? Ah can't really say that I didn't know what time it was 'coz she told me to be back by nightfall. Ah think it's pretty obvious tha' Ah'm no blind, don't you think? So that one's out the window.

"Well?" he said when I didn't say anything in return. I still didn't say anything. The silence that was stretching on didn't seem like it minutes, more like centuries. And yet I still didn't say a thing. I guess that's what I could tell them. Nothing. I heard the others shift uncomfortably and then Geode's sigh.

"It's been a long day, I suppose that everyone's tired so…we'll talk about this more in the morning." I was glad that he had an excuse (hopefully) for my benefit. I was even more glad when they all agreed to it. I had to take a few steps backwards as I was in everyone's way to getting upstairs.

"Shadow…" I looked up and saw it was Talon. She looked a lot calmer than what she did a few moments before. "Shadow, please, tell me what happened. Why were you so late? You said you knew the way so…?" she said pleading in her voice and eyes.

"I…well I," I coughed, "I go' lost. That's why Ah was so late. This place is so big, Ah thought Ah knew the way back but when Ah tried to find my way here…" I shrugged. "That's why it took me so long." I wasn't exactly lying, but I wasn't exactly telling the truth either. I was lost, yeah, but I was lost in my thoughts. But I did get lost in the streets a couple of times. Just not for very long.

"Is that it? Why didn't you say so just now?" she asked, all traces of pleading seeming to have disappeared.

I shrugged again. "Ah guess it was 'coz Ah was embarrassed." I said softly.

"Hmmm, I guess that'll be a good enough reason." She sighed. "Shadow, can I ask you another question?" she said timidly.

"Yeah, Ah s'pose." I answered slowly, my guard starting to creep up again.

"What were you doin' in 'The Modern Castle'? I mean, it's sort of obvious that you haven't been out for some time, 'coz, well, you seem kind of too pale to be healthy, no offence." She added the last part quickly. "What I'm tryin' to say is, is, you were living in there weren't you? In 'The Modern Castle'. We've never seen anyone enter or leave that place, well, there is that lady…she always dressed in black…"

I stared at her when she said that. Lady? Always dressed in black? I didn't even have to think about who she was talking about. As soon as Talon said that there was a lady who came into the building then an image of her instantly popped up into my head.

"Shad? What's wrong?" she said when she noticed that I was staring at her.

"Uh, it's nothing. It's just that I think who she is. I'd seen her around but she never told me her name. I didn't ask her either." I didn't tell her how I'd more than seen her, she interfered with my life (if you could call it that) and changed it from what it used to before she came along. Then again, my life was topsy-turvy anyway; maybe if something else happens my life would go to normal?

Fat chance.

Like my life would be able to turn back to normal just because of something happening in it. My life will never be the same again. Ever. How can it be? I'm not normal. And I certainly will never be ever again. Not in a million years. Unless scientists can work out how to splice human D.N.A take out the abnormal pieces and then put in normal human D.N.A where they had taken out the other stuff. I know that the transgenic stuff is already possible, but as far as I am aware of, they are only possible with small organisms. It just hasn't been tried on the more complex human, and my white blood cells might kill off those new cells anyway. They'd probably destroy them before they could duplicate themselves into more of them since they are sort of foreign bodies.

"Okay." We both lapsed into silence as we mulled over our thoughts. "I guess we should go to sleep now, shouldn't we?" she said finally.

"Yeah." I was starting to play around with Trilox's blade (who was inside of my pocket) again anyway. When we got upstairs Talon instantly lied on top of the mattress next to Blaze like she did the night before. Somehow, everybody was already sleeping, they seemed like they were anyway. Goodness knows how they were able to sleep that fast. Again there was that empty mattress next to Zero.

'But Ah'm sure saw Geode go up the stairs though.' Looking around I saw a chair that I hadn't seen before, and sitting on top of that chair was Geode. His legs were stretched straight out in front of him while his arms were folded over his chest while his shoulders were about halfway down the back of the seat. I've no idea how he did it, but he was also sleeping in that weird position. 'Why would he sleep on the chair when there's a spare mattress? Ah mean, c'mon, the mattress has to be comfier than that wooden thing isn't it?'

Still wondering about this, I laid on the mattress and stared at the ceiling above me as I waited for sleep to come to me.

* * *

When I opened my eyes again, I didn't bolt up or anything. For the first time in years I had been able to sleep without nightmares or something disturbing my sleep. For the first time in years I had been able to sleep a dreamless sleep and not have to worry about what was going to happen the next day.

The only problem was… my body felt pretty sore after the beating it received yesterday. I didn't really feel the one on my chest; that one just felt like a dull throb. Apart from when it actually happened, I only felt really it when Talon was hugging me. Mainly as when she rested her head on my chest, her head was slap-bang right on top of the bruise that was there. But the bruise that was definitely the worst was the one on my abdomen. Because of where it was, I had a little trouble with breathing. Every thing else seemed to be okay apart from that.

Again, it looked like I was the first person to wake up. And again, those covers appeared out of nowhere. I had a distinct feeling that it was Geode who was getting the covers. Based primarily on the facts that he was the second person to wake up after me and that he was sleeping in that chair which I still have no idea how he could fall asleep in it. Unless he was just pretending to be. But where the covers could be hidden in, it didn't look like there was any cupboards or anything like that so where…?

'Ah wonder wha' time is it?' I mused while I waited for the others to wake up. 'Does it even ma''er? These guys live for the day, never plannin' what would happen next. Sometimes, no' even caring. I wonder…those doors were locked. So how the heck did Talon get inside the building?? The dare was a bit farfetched 'coz how would she find somethin' that would prove that she was in there? From where they were s'posed to be hidin', they wouldn't have seen her go in so she could have just cheated.' I sighed silently as I thought about it. 'Ah guess they were curious as well as bored. Ah wonder wha' we're gonna do today? Ah s'pose Ah should say that Ah got lost 'coz it would be a bit suspicious if Ah said one thing one day and then something else the next.' A faint frown formed on my face as a memory -a fuzzy one at that- started to materialize in my head without me trying to remember it. The weird thing was, I didn't recall it happening. Ever. The reason? It was outside. Not 'outside' as in the enclosure, but outside outside. As in streets and cars and people. Apart from there wasn't anyone in this memory. How did I know that if I'm certain that I haven't experienced this? Okay, near the start there is actually somebody in it. I intertwined my fingers together, placed them behind my head as I half closed my eyes and let the memory weave itself into my minds eye…

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Ta-ra! Finished! He-he. I didn't even know that I was going to end it there. Just to let you guys know, I've written the last chapter for this fic. But I don't know when that's going to come in. At the very least it'll be in the double digits. And I have a feeling that everyone's gonna hate how it ends. So now to my reviewers:
Dudems: you always like the way the chapter was written. ^__^ I can't really write romance and it wasn't that much but meh. What did you think of that bit?
Niphredil: Yey! You actually reviewed! Finally! * Dances around the room like a lunatic *  ^__^" heh. Told ya I would do that if/when you reviewed. Thank you thank you thank you! So hope that you review this chapter!
 
Dark Ice Dragon