LOVRINA

Rachel had stopped screaming by the time Citadark Isle came into

view. A large shutter was raised, and the beast carrying her flew in

and set her gently enough on the floor, landing behind her and furling

its great wings. She was facing a small old man, his two bodyguards,

and two men and a woman with impossibly long pink hair in two huge

pigtails.

"What is this?" asked one of the men, peering at her curiously. "How

strange. A girl that looks like a Lugia. Does that tail work?" Rachel

had been determined not to answer him, but her anger was making

the tail twitch.

"I see it does." he said. He turned to the small old man.

"Well, Grand Master, I don't think you expected XD001 to bring back

a human Lugia. None of us did. What do we do with her?"

"You are human?" the woman asked.

"Yes." Rachel said. She'd been treated as a Pokémon once before by

unscrupulous people, and had no wish to repeat the experience. "This

is all surgically grafted. George is a very gifted surgeon. He now uses

his abilities for healing rather than changing."

"How fascinating." said the man again. He had "trouble" written all

over him, and Rachel considered him to be a thug. "However, we

cannot let her go, she's already seen far too much."

"Indeed." Said the old man. "But what to do with her?"

"I'll take her, Grand Master." The woman spoke. "I can so find a use

for her. I've never tried the process on a human before, and I would

so like to find out if I can use the process on humans."

Rachel began to back away. She didn't know who these people were,

but she didn't like the way they were talking about not letting her go,

and of using her for an experiment. She felt herself seized from

behind, and found two-white-outfitted figures holding her. Their

outfits looked familiar, and she realised these were just a variant on

the uniforms some of the Cipher people had worn five years

previously, and she realised she was in trouble. She looked

imploringly at the old man, but be turned away, waving a hand

towards her.

"Then she is yours, Lovrina. Make sure you confine her well, I should

be most displeased should she escape to tell people about us. He

looked at the large beast that still sat behind her.

"XD001. Go out and find another like you. Same instructions as

before, and bring it here. Eldes, Ardos, bring our latest guest up. I

want to see how she's turned out."

The woman, Lovrina, turned and walked to an elevator, indicating the

two Ciphers to bring Rachel with them. They brought her to an

elevator, and as the doors closed, she saw the great Lugia-like beast

fly through the space left by the once-again raised shutter.