Mienaku, Rya: (sitting in lay-z-boys that have vibrating action in front of a large theatre screen eating candy and popcorn)

Rya: (chair back vibrating) aaaahhhhh, tttthhhhiiiissss fffeeeeellllllssss gggrrreeeaaattt!

Mienaku: (getting a back rub a la Wufei) yeah, this is the life! A little lower, Fei-babe.

Wufei: grrrrrrr!

Rya: (holding empty bag) Rats! I'm out of twizzlers! Ooohhh, DDuuuoooo!

Duo: (appears in a cabana-boy outfit, grinning from ear to ear) yes mistress?

Rya: (giggle) I need more twizzlers.

Duo: Okay! (runs off for the candy)

Mienaku: Don't you just love it when we get our way?

Quatre: (posing as a cocktail table on the floor next to Mienaku's chair) No.

Mienaku: (evil grin) No nooky for you!

Quatre: (crying) Waaaaaahhhhh!

Heero: (rubbing Rya's feet) Noooooooo!

Duo: (has returned with the candy) Tada!

Mienaku: Hush! The fic is about to start.

Rya: Hooray for Chapter 3!

Everyone: SHHHHH!

Rya: eep!

Wufei: (to Mienaku) Didn't you have something else to add?

Mienaku: Oh yeah! I changed my mind and thoughts are going to be in italics from now on.

Rya: Much easier that way, no da?

Wufei: Stop trying to speak a language you don't understand.

Rya: Humph! You're such a meany!

Quatre: (from the floor) Actions are still in parentheses, though.

Everyone: SHHHHH!

Quatre: (glare) . . . . . . (sigh)

CHAPTER 3

"They're here," Rya cried, backing away from the large figure in the doorway.
"Rya! Down!" Heero yelled. Rya hit the floor as bullets sang over her head and into the lycanthrope that stood in the open doorway(1). The lycan took the slug in the chest, stumbled back a little, but didn't go down. Those who were not accustomed to the ways of lycanthropes, namely Heero, stared in a mix of surprise and horror as the guy's skin spit the lead bullet out. Looking up from admiring his lack of a wound, the man smiled devilishly as Mienaku and Duo simultaneously shouted, "You!" In the moment it took for the two to glance at each other, one in horror and the other in anger, the chestnut-haired lycan snatched Rya up by her hair. He held her to his broad chest, and where any normal kidnapper would have a held a gun to her head, he held a large, sharp claw underneath her chin. "The cats come with me," he demanded, " or else she becomes a kitty-kabob."(2) "Miku, please hel-ught!" Everyone froze. How the monster had managed to keep knife-sharp claw under Rya's chin and choke her with the same, large hand, and still hold her captive with the other was a mystery. Heero still had his gun pointed at the lycan's head. Wufei and Trowa had somehow produced katana and daggers from seemingly nowhere, ready to fight. "Now!" he yelled, raking the hand that held her across her upper chest and neck, claws leaving visible gashes. Rya cried out in pain, spurring Duo, finally, into action. "Stand down guys." he sighed, "There's no way you can take him out." "No silver, bullets or blade," Trowa informed the confused, laying down his daggers. Wufei followed suit, but Heero kept his gun trained between the man's eyes. Seeing the opportunity for what it was, the large man grabbed Duo by the back of his braid, catching him off guard, swung both captives around, out the door, down the walkway, and threw them into the waiting van. Stunned, they stood helplessly on the porch and watched as the black van sped off down the driveway, gravel flying. When the van was out of sight, Mienaku sank to her knees and began pounding an angry hole into the undeserving porch as she screamed. The others could only stand there in shock as she destroyed their home, and a little fear at the sparks that were born of the death glare Heero was directing at the spot where the van had disappeared behind the trees. Looking back and forth between the two siblings, it was painfully clear that someone was going to die, and that beast of a man was at the top of the hit list.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Duo was thrown head first into the black van, hitting the side hard enough to see pretty little fishes swimming around his head. Before the fish went away, a body was thrown into him, slamming into his chest, and temporarily extinguishing his oxygen supply. He started to fight back, still a bit dazed from having his brain sloshed around, then realized it was Rya. When he could finally refocus his eyes, he saw that she had her eyes closed tight in pain, or was that concentration. As Duo watched, the gashes across her chest and neck began to heal themselves. When all traces of the deep cuts were gone she opened her eyes. Duo, still amazed by her self-healing process, watched as first confusion, then panic, and finally fear flew across her face. As Rya's face went white,Duo was certain she was going to scream. Then the recognition of whom she was sprawled across dawned on her. "Duo?" Rya asked, still seeing a few stars herself. "Yeah, it's me. You all right?" He asked, grabbing her gently by the shoulders. She's still panicking, Duo thought. "Where're we going? Where's Miku!" Before Duo could answer, she was across the van frantically searching for an escape. Seeing that she couldn't get out through the locked doors, she settled for the corner farthest away from all the doors; near the front, driver's side. "No, no, no, no, no," she kept chanting to herself. " I can't-I won't go back!" she screamed, pounding on the small window that opened to the front of the van. "You hear me! I won't go back there!" Duo grabbed her before she could do anymore damage to herself. "Rya.Rya, stop! You're going to hurt yourself." He held her close, trying to calm her enough to keep her from hyper-ventilating. "Please, Duo," she cried into his chest, "please, please, please don't let them take me back to him." "Back to who?" Duo asked, confused. "Back to him, the Master of the City! He-they-they're taking me-you back to the city-to him! NO! Oh Duo! They're gonna-he's gonna-me-and you! He'll kill us-no! Worse yet, he'll make us suffer and not kill us!" Rya was beginning to panic again and Duo was still clueless as to what she meant by this 'Master of the City' person. He only knew the guy up front meant business, and not the good kind. Apparently, this Master of the City dude is really bad, Duo thought. I need to know more about this guy before we meet him. He looked at Rya. And I need to get her calmed down, too, or she really will hurt herself. Duo held her and soothed her until she calmed down a bit. As he held her, he tried to think of a way to get her to answer some of his questions without riling her up again. How do I ask her without . . . And then I would need to know more about her too. Just then the van hit a bump in the road sending the both of them sailing. Picking themselves up from the floor they scooted back against the side again, Rya getting more comfy at Duo's side. "What are you?" Duo asked, surprising Rya. "What do you mean?" she asked, staring up at him. "I mean, who are you? I would say what are you, but I already know that.Where are you from? Who's this head hauncho of the city you're so scared of?" At the sight of her dead expression he added, "Please tell me, Rya." Rya got more settled. "All right," she sighed. "I'm known only as Rya. I don't have a last name. At least not one I remember. I'm a lycanthrope, but you knew that," she gave him a small, strained smile. "I'm a leopard, too, just like you." "How'd you get it? The disease, I mean," Duo asked, hoping it wasn't too personal. "When I was little, I remember playing in the park. I made friends with one of the other kids. We played for hours. House, cops and robbers, princesses, we played everything. While we were playing a game of tag, she accidentally scratched me. It didn't really hurt, just drew a little blood, but it was enough to infect me. Sometime after my first full moon I hooked up with a local pard. Everything was great for awhile. When I was about, hmm, sixteen, I guess, the Master of the City decided to demand a gift, a pet, a stinkin' play toy, from every pard within the city limits. You see the leopard is his animal to call. It was bad enough that I got infected, but-no-the fates weren't done with me yet. The pard offered me up as a gift. No parents, no ties to any family, technically legal-though that never made a difference, so I was perfect. I was shipped of to the Master of the City's lair. He's a vampyre ya know. There were about five of us 'gifts'. He used one of us every other week; switched us out. We were his 'little harem of kittens', his pomme de sang's. In other words, he used us sexually as well as a food source. Oh, Duo! I just can't go back there! I-I'll go mad, insane, if I go back!" she cried, clinging to him-and his braid-as if her life depended on it. The van chose that moment to find another dip in the road, sending them flailing once again, Rya inadvertently yanking Duo's braid. By the time they got comfortable-well, as comfy as the bed of a work van can be-again, they both had tears in their eyes. "And what about you?" Rya asked as Duo rubbed the back of his sore head. "What's your sordid tale, eh?" "You mean, from the beginning? The very beginning?" Duo was hoping she wouldn't make him go back that far. There was too much pain. Too much hate and death. "Tell me whatever you want. I won't know the difference," she said, to his relief. "Well in that case," Duo began, "I was a gundam pilot during the wars, but for the-" "You were a gundam pilot!" "Yeah." "But you were just a kid!" "I like to say a mature teenager, but yeah." "Which did you pilot? Which gundam did-oh, is that confidential?" "It was, but all the gundams were destroyed. Plus, I don't think I can possibly get in more trouble than I am in now." "So which one then?" "Deathscythe," Duo said, as if remembering an old friend. "Wow. That sounds like it was fun." "It was far from fun. It was war." "Sorry." "It's okay. Anyway, all of us, save Quatre-you know, the sun thing and all, work for the Preventers. During the wars, fighting was my life. I've always had to fight it seems. The Preventers gave me a way to keep doing the same things I had been trained to do. Then one day, about 2 years ago, one of my missions went bad." Duo stopped, as though he were remembering that mission. Rya, with the patience of a turtle, waited for him to continue. Not likely. "What happened? Is that when you got infected? How'd it happen? A scratch like me or something more sinister?" she asked, just playing around, but stopped when she saw Duo's face. "I'm sorry, Duo, I didn't mean to hurt you, honest, I-" "No, it's okay. You just hit a sore spot is all, but that's in the past." "What did happen-That is, if it's not too painful to share."

>>>Flashback>>>

'This was supposed to be a simple get-in-get-out mission', Duo thought. 'Unfortunately, nothing is ever that simple.' Duo followed the man suspected of dealing in the illegal market of Human Trade. 'Better known as a slave trade,' he thought. Duo tailed the large man as he left the bar, sticking to shadows as he'd always done. "Duo, be extra careful with this man. Do not underestimate him. He's more than what you think he is." Sally had said. He tailed the man out of town to a small shack out in the woods. The place was secluded, sure, but definitely not large enough to keep any amount of people at one time. 'Wait! This is that shack those guys at the bar were talking about. Small, secluded, and just right for a lovers tryst. This guy's large, but not very bright.' Duo scoffed at the man's stupidity and closed in on the little 'love shack'. He snuck up to an open window and peeked inside hoping to overhear some kind of vital bit of information. "You wouldn't be looking for us would you now?" came a deep and menacing voice from behind him. Duo turned slowly, putting on the face of a kid who got caught peeping in the window of the girl next door as she was changing. He'd been told many times that he looked much younger than his 20yrs. "You must be starting, what, eighth, ninth grade?" some bagger at the grocery store had asked him at checkout(3). Granted, he had been with Trowa at the time, who looked much older than he was at 21yrs old, but eighth grade! Come on! "No sir, I work for the Preventers. Graduated high school several years ago," he'd said in reply. Duo stood trying to act as though he were only 14yrs old. It was the man he had been tailing, joined by three of his buddies. Two of which had guns pointed at him. Keeping in his role, Duo threw his hands in the air feigning shock. "Look guys, I didn't mean nuthin'! I was just tryin' ta getta peek is all. Get a look at some-" "Cut the crap. I know you been following me-" " I dont' know what yur talkin' 'bout. I seen ya come this way an' thoughtcha had a girl here wiatin' for ya. So I followed thinkin' I'd get a free show and-" "Don't play with me," the man snarled, grabbing Duo by the scruff of the neck, effectively lifting him off the ground. Duo wasn't small by any means. Standing at 6'2" and weighing about 173lbs.; the man holding him a bit taller, but not much heavier. 'How is he lifting me off the ground,' Duo thought. The man suddenly stuck his nose under Duo's ear, still holding him off the ground-with ease, at that- and breathed deeply. "I know exactly who you are now," he said cryptically. "But since you came for a show," he turned to the others behind and to the side of him," we'll just have to give you one." "Oh, no, that's okay. I think I'll just," Duo said, beginning to panic and trying to squirm away from the man's steel grip. 'Is this what Treize meant when he said not to underestimate him? And how could he possibly have known I was following him?' Duo thought. "Not a chance. You've had your fun," the man said, dragging him inside and chucking him on the floor like a ragdoll, "now we'll have ours." Duo could do nothing but watch in horror as what he had been calling men transformed themselves into monsters that only belonged in B-rated horror flicks. "You can scream if you want," the man-beast snarled, a dog-like evil grin on his hideous snout. 'He goes by the name of Treize Kushrenada. He's not like the other guys you've brought in, Duo, so be very cautious about him.' Sally had warned him, but he hadn't taken her seriously enough, and now he was in serious trouble. Treize, in his half wolf-half man form, advanced so quickly on Duo that he didn't have a chance to even think of running. "Your tail is mine!" And from there the torture and rape went on for three days, until the evening of the fourth day. One of the guys, Duo had stopped trying to keep track of who they were-all he needed to know was which were the ones for torture and which for rape, forgot to lock the door. It was sheer luck that the door was even unlocked, but it was a miracle that he made it back home at all. He'd stumbled through the front door, trying to get to the sofa in the living room, and passed out.

>>>End Flashback>>>

"Duo?" Duo snapped out of his memory at the sound of Rya's concerned voice. "Sorry." "It's obviously too painful for you, so don't tell me, it's okay." Rya said, trying to erase the look of sheer pain and fear on Duo's face. Duo looked at her, obliged to give some kind of answer. "Let's just say that innocence, what was left after the war, was lost the hard and violent way to the man up front," Duo told her, face reddening inspite of himself. That explains his reaction back at the house, Rya thought. Duo had attempted to turn his face away in embarrassment, but she gently grabbed his face and turned him toward her. She kissed him on the forehead, " I understand." They stared at each other in a moment of understanding. Unfortunately, the moment was disrupted by the van door slamming open. Their captor, with hands holding onto the roof of the van, leaned in with a grin that said he was all too pleased with himself and said, "We're home, kittens."

(1)apparently Heero is always packing the heat...no pun intended, but yes, that too.
(2) Mienaku: that was so lame. Rya: yes I know. (sweatdrop)
(3)Rya: yes this actually happened to me. Only I was going into ninth and the guy asked if I were starting sixth!
Mienaku: apparently he couldn't see your big boobs, or he wouldn't have asked. Rya: good grief. (sigh)