To Tame a Beast

Mwahahaha.. and the evil cliff hanger ends.. along with a lot of revealing of secrets.. Read and review.. make this poor little writer feel loved

Catch me as I fall

Say you're here and it's all over now

Speaking to the atmosphere

No one's here and I fall into my self

This truth drives me into madness

I know I can stop the pain if I will it all away

-Evanescence Whisper

Chpt. 13 ......I fall

The wind beat against them as they fell from the bottom of the transport, down towards the rocky terrain below. Fear gripped down on him, the world whirled around him. He was unable to scream from surprise because the wind ripped away his voice and his ability to breathe. Death, he never feared it, he had always danced along its thin edge every time he stepped onto the battle field. But this, this was not the way he had envisioned his own death. To die by the hands of a stronger opponent, but not by the suicide attempt to escape from being captured by the enemy. He would have rather stayed up there, fighting to his own death then to be falling down towards the world. Down towards a long with held death that falls like this could only bring.The rocks begin to gain more detail. Dilandau found himself digging his fingers down onto her hands. Water began to stream up off his face since the force of the wind was drying his eyes, he was unable to blink. It was then, just before his mind lost the battle for conscious that they suddenly jolted upward out of their straight fall. His neck snapped out from the force of the sudden change, causing him to black out for a few seconds. When his vision came back they were no longer falling, but moving parallel to the rocky ground.

"How....?" Dilandau was able to cough; the air flooded his burning lungs. A loud 'snap' echoed in his ears, two vibrant wings with red tipped feathers blocked his view of the world below before disappearing again. Something in him froze, he was unable to speak, move as the last of the echoing 'snap' in his ears dead away into the silence of the roaring winds. Daringly he turned his head slowly against the newly directed force of the wind his left to glaze at one, as it stretched far out. The feathers ruffled in the wind, they moved along with roaring wind. "You're......you're a....draconian."

The red tipped winds snapped again, but this time a hot liquid sprayed a crossed his neck as she rose her wings back up. Tearing his red eyes away from the wings he looked down at the passing ground while he pulled one of his hands out of its death grip on Rei's. Moving it as slowly as the force of the wind allowed him; he wiped the liquid off of his neck and looked down onto his black glove. There in the mists of the black leather was the dark red of blood. It was then; Dilandau felt her hands dig down into his shoulders through his armored jacket, and the gasp of pain from Rei. She snapped her wings again causing another spray of blood. Doing the best he could, he looked back at her, and she buried her face into his shoulder.

"Rei w-"

"Gods...." The whimpered cry silenced him and she lifted her head. He could see the pain in her sapphire eyes as they locked on to his red ones. "I can't......we're too high... Not meant to be... Have to....got to...dive..." She stopped in half finished thoughts; whether she was actually saying the whole thing, Dilandau couldn't tell since the wind ripped her words away. Leaving him with the half finished, scrambled words that made no sense to him. She gasped in pain again, flexed her wings, and buried her face into his shoulder again.

"Rei.... Rei what did you say I-" The wind ripped away the rest of the words from him. He wanted to hear what she was trying to say, to understand by her wings had been tainted by blood. Did draconians bleed when they used their wings? No he had seen Folken use his once, when he was younger. There was no blood then, but why was she bleeding. So lost in thought, he did realize that the rocks below had given way to a vast forest, nor did he realize that Rei's grip on him was loosening until there was a sudden drop in their altitude. He slammed up against her went the dropped happened, when he reclined away from her, he almost fell right out of her arms. He gripped down on her hands to keep himself from free falling down into the trees that flourished below, stilling a few glance up at her. Her eyes were half open, falling asleep; as if to reflect this motion, with every single moment passed it seemed that the muscles in her arms relaxed more and more.

"Rei! Rei come on now stay awake!" Dilandau yelled over the roaring wind as they dropped a few more feet. Her eyes fluttered open, to look at him.

"The...pain... to....must...lose...more...Can't.." The words, the thought was lost to him and her body suddenly relaxed. He didn't have time to grab hold of her hands. He began his free fall to the world below. Fear took hold of him, like it had when they first started this; whatever had caused Rei to bleed was probable the cause of her loss of strength. Without her wings, the fall to death took place again. This time he was alone, he couldn't see Rei as he fell. Whether or not she had took on the fast dive before, he did not know, but here he was unable to scream or breathe. The burning of his empty lungs was the first thing to fill as he tried to grab onto the air. The darkness of unconsciousness began to take hold of him, it should before he met the painful death that awaited him. They were still high up enough for it to happen; one would suffocate before they hit the ground from the height that they were falling from. But, just as his vision gave away to the bliss of that darkness, something took hold of his out stretched hand.

Celena jumped out of her guymelef onto the platform. Pulling off the bracers that were on her arms, she watched the two other Dragonslayers launch out of the hanger. Fifty-seven hours, for fifty-seven hours there had been no sign of him, tired and exhausted, she was forced to return to the Vione after an unsuccessful search. No matter, the original plan had been to switch off every few hours, but she refused the relief and continued. Lack of sleep had been something she was trained to take, but Guimel had ordered her back. The bracers hit the metal flooring; the sound rang in her ears. She stared helplessly out after the departing melefs. Where are you brother?

"Celena?" She turned around to look at a worried Shesta. He stopped on the second step before the platform. She dropped her arms to her sides, finding that she had been holding herself.

"Report..." That's it, assume your position. If this happened in combat, this would be the response that they all made, Guimel would take command, and she would be second.

"Sections K9 through C12 have been searched; Miguel and Gatty are searching sections P13 through F17 as we speak. There has been no sign of them yet." Sighing again, she nodded and walked down the steps past him only to stop when he started to speak again. "But, on another note, Celena, there was a transport that docked with the Vione a few hours ago. It was only here for a few minutes before leaving." She whirled around to look at the blond boy.

"Do we know why it was here?"

"Folken!" Celena half yelled as she opened the door to his study, anger was riding of the bridge of the back of her mind. How dare he? How dare he bring one of THEM here without asking her first? She half caught herself, stopping the train of thought before it went any further; she was not going to turn into her brother. There sitting at the table was a red headed woman, bent over what looked like an old fashion radar that was set up on the table. The woman held part of a head set against one of her ears and she turned dials on the radar, the dark madoushi's cloak fell out around her. Her red hair fell down over her shoulders. Folken was standing next to her, and had been watching intensely just before Celena had yelled. When he looked up, his tired and worried eyes had stopped her short of yelling all the mad words she had thought up when she had made her way through the Vione. Mental shaking herself for the sudden desire that ran through her mind, she forced herself to speak. "What is going on here?"

"Assisting in the conduction of the search." The woman's hand moved off one dial to another, turning it every which way as if trying to get the radar to focus on a certain signal. Frowning, Celena watched her, how was this helping in the search, when neither Dilandau nor Rei were in there their guymelefs, nor did either of them have anything electronic with them. Rei's com had been found inside the Silencer's cockpit. She looked up at Folken confused. Unless there was a........

"There's a tracker on Dilandau?" Her eyes widened. "They put trackers on us?!"

"Celena, it's not-" Folken stared to say, when a beeping noise silenced them both, Folken's reason, her anger. The woman adjusted a few more dials before a small spick on the radar screen began to blink. He looked away from her and down at the screen as the woman laid the head set on the table.

"Those should be the coordinates; she doesn't seem to be moving that may not be a good thing..." There was an easement in the woman's voice as she spoke, leaning back in the chair.

"She...?" was all Celena could say.

His body ached all over, bruises covered in bruises; it hurt to inhale, but most of all he felt a splitting headache tearing apart his skull. Slowly becoming aware of his surroundings, Dilandau lifted his hand up slowly to cover his eyes, the light burned through his eye lids. Besides the light, his mind slowly registered the softness on the bed beneath his back, the sheet pulled up over his naked body, and lastly the wraps that went around his ribs. There was the sound of someone breathing, turning his head slightly, he cracked his eyes open only to bring them shut again and moan from the brightness. A chair hit the floor as that other person jumped up to there feet.

"Dilandau?" Celena's voice came to him, part of the bed bent into the direction her hands pushed down on it. Her cool have touched the side of his face.

"The light....."

"O! I'm so sorry!" The bed jumped and she ran to the pad lock on the door. The lights in the room lightened away into almost nothing, he opened his eyes with ease. Dilandau blinked a few times to make his eyes focus before Celena's head appeared over him, the look of worry crossed into her blue eyes. She pressed her hand against his face. "You had me worried for a while that you weren't going to get up.... At less your fever has broken..."

"How long...Where?" She pressed a cold cloth against his forehead.

"You've been back on the Vione for almost seven hours.... We spent forever going through that forest..." She smiled slightly, but it faded away, the cloth fell from her hand. He could see the tears pour down her face before she started crying. Leaning downward, Celena buried her face in his shoulder. "I was so scared that I'd lost you. You promised that you wouldn't do that anymore. "

"Cel..." Dilandau wrapped his arms around his crying sister, she began to shake from her sobs. She continued talking, in mumbles and he managed to lay her down so that it would be easier to hold her. It was then, holding his shaken sister, that the memories began to flood back into his now awaken mind.

Unconscious on the forest floor, Rei laid on her stomach as a dark haired boy bent over her. His head shot up at the sound of a twig snapping.

She was on the wooden floor, the man stood up, breathing harshly. Chest rising and falling irregularly like she was fighting something off.

Falling, falling down toward the rocky terrain, the wind took away his voice, erasing his scream of surprise as she pulled them over the edge of the hanger in the transport.

Vibrant blood tipped wings snapped as they fought a losing battle to keep them in the air. She cried out in pain as he tried to keep a grip on her hands.

"Rei.." Dilandau half bolted up in the bed, arms still around his sister who stopped crying the second he jolted up. "Celena.. Where's Rei?" She pushed bit away from him, eyes unable to look up into his.

"Brother... There's something you need to know..."

The sound of bare feet running against the metal floor echoed down the hall. He was barely able to get himself some what dressed in a pair of black slacks and a black long sleeve shirt before bolting out of the room leaving Celena sitting at the table. He slipped pasted the other soldiers walking about the corridors, not caring if they took a second look at their commander as he made his way through the Vione. Taking two steps at a time, he made his way to the middle levels. Almost skidding passed the door, Dilandau made his way into the infirmary. A high pitched scream ripped into him as the door opened, revealing the chaos that had run its course in the inner most parts of the Vione. There in the middle of it all, restrained down on a table, screamed the wounded creature; white hair flying about as her body arched up against the restrains holding her down on the table, blood streaming everywhere. Her clothing ripped to shreds, revealing the many open cuts that covered her tan body, but most of the blood that dripped down off the table came from the openings on her back. She slammed back down on the table with the same fury. He was frozen watching her struggle, a red headed woman tried to hold her down, yelling at the medics. Rei's eyes echoed what Celena had finished telling him, the solid blood shot red eyes tore at everything in the room.

"Where the hell is Folken!?" The red head yelled. "I can't treat her if I don't know what the hell they gave her!" Someone ran past him out into the halls, the chaos continued here. She struggled and fought against her restraints, all the while making the cuts in her wrists worse then they already were. "For the love of the Gods, if this keeps up I'm going to run out of blood to give her!" A female medic pushed passed him and disappeared into the hall just seconds before another blood curling scream cut through the voices that filled the room. He couldn't move, all his muscles were frozen to place as he watched the scene unfold before him. Somewhere in the back of his mind, old memories of his childhood broke out of their shells. Rei struggled against her restraints.

"Someone get me something to sedate her with, if she keeps this up we're going to have to add broken bones to the list of injuries!" The red head yelled, she once again pushed Rei down onto the table. The woman looked up at him, and sort of froze. Whether it had been some sort of look on his face that made that look cross her own, she looked slightly worried. The female medic came bursting through the doors once again, this time carrying a small piece of paper which the woman grabbed. She glanced down at it, before looking back at him. "I need 27 milligrams of pamylica and get him out of here! The last thing I need is her to flip through an episode!"

"Lord Dilandau..." The female medic turned and walked towards him slowly. "Please leave the infirmary, and report to Lord Folken, he wishes to speak to you." Still froze, his mind took a few minutes before absorbing the words of the young medic before he turned away, and walked through the doors leaving behind the struggling white hair she-demon.

The door to the study opened slowly, Dilandau half dragged himself in, lost in the thoughts and images that plagued his mind. Folken stood out on the balcony, concealed in the darkness of the night, and watched the silver haired boy slump down into a chair. Dilandau rested his head on the edge of the table, looking down at his hands not realizing he was behind him. Shaking his head, Folken quietly walked into the room and over to the far bookshelf where he pulled out several books to reveal a small glass bottle half filled with a brownish liquid.

How? His red eyes focused down at his hands and ran over the small piece of metal between them. Using one finger, he traced the words imprinted on them. Her dog tags, how Celena was able to get a hold of them, he cared not to know but here was all the evidence that one needed to know. She had survived, all this years he thought she had died, the she-demon that had tried to help them through those rough years. She, who had died trying to free them from the imprisonment that they had to suffer through, was alive. Had she no memory of them? Was that why she had never came back for them if she had lived through that arrow? Or had she just decided not to help them anymore? Questions after questions swirled in his mind, he wanted so much to go back to the infirmary and yell at her for not helping them, for leaving him alone once again to the madoushis. But, apart of him was to afraid to stand back up and walk down there, to that scene. How many times was he strapped down like that? The sound of glass being placed on a hard surface made him lifted his head to look at the small shot glass filled to the rim with a brownish liquid before him.

"Drink it..." Folken said and placed the bottle down on the table a little ways down. Dilandau complied, lifting the glass to his mouth carefully so not to spill any of it. The whiskey burned at his throat making it made its way down, he set the glass back down on the table. Leaning back, he closed his eyes; he could feel the whiskey slowly easing the stress that was pulling his nerves. He heard another glass touch the table, slowly reopening his eyes; he saw Folken's hand resting next to another shot glass. Since when did Folken drink?

"You lied to us.." It was the only thing he could think to say; for his mind was still riding in the shock it was slowly absorbing. Alive, alive, the she-demon had survived all this years, and she had been standing right under his noise for the past seven weeks. Folken closed his eyes and looked down at the table, he looked older somehow and exhausted.

"In a way I did it seems. You and your sister were not the only ones to make it through the tests on the madoushis, but also 009 at a price." He sighed and shook his head before continuing. "Her memories through her childhood years were locked away in her mind so that they could never resurface. She went through drug after drug to keep her in a semiconscious state while they continued testing on her. Her death that you and Celena witnessed was something set up to make you think she had died so that there was not a chance of her memories returning. When she was nine, 009 was put into a real combat position. With in 17 hours she had leveled an enter village, slaughtered all six hundred residences. It was declared that 009 had been a success, the only problem that began to develop was that each time she was used she would become harder and harder to control. Several months ago, one of the madoushis lasted control of her; she wiped out an entire fortress along with half the residence in the Black Towers." They deserved what they got, the thought crossed his mind as he listened to Folken speak. "Two weeks before 009 was taken aboard the Vione, Rei had been released from containment..."

"And was transferred here, so that you could some how come up with a method or drug should I say, to control her with?" Dilandau cut in with a curled voice, when will they learn that they can't control everything? That they shouldn't have played god with so many young lives?

"Something like that... She was set in my charge as long as she nor you and Celena did not know who she truly was." He shook his head, and sighed slightly. "But, with this happening now, it was very clear that I would not be able to do anything about it." There was a silence between them, each lost in their own thoughts. Dilandau was the first to move, taking hold of the whiskey bottle and pouring some of it's contains into Folken's glass.

"Now that you've cleaned your mind, I have a few bones to pick with you."

The faint glow of the candles barely made her face visible, they stood there, each a few steps from the other, awaiting their punishment for failure. They had let her escape, they had failed their purpose. The candle light flicked over her smooth, pale face. She looked at them both, her pale blue hair fell over the empty blue eyes. Even with an empty expression on her face, one could feel the anger at filled the small tent. The black haired boy shifted unease at the long silence.

"Explain yourselves..." The words were cold, slicing through the silence like a knife through butter. The elder of the two took a half a step forward, and bowed slightly, the white strains of his hair fell over his dark purple eyes.

"We were unable to contain her. She was able to escape even though she was drugged. 006 must have helped in the escape. We will-"his voice was cut off, something invisible clamped down on his throat, cutting of air to his lungs. He struggled slightly, hands over his own neck trying to pry off whatever was around his neck. The other boy shifted away, holding back the fear of running watching the brutal attack. Blue eyes looked away from his companion to the woman sitting down, dark blue lines were etched on her face, and arms and her blood veins became visible.

"And why was 006 with you, you were only suppose to get the beast, Kaji!" she snarled and the silver hair boy was flung backwards. The sound of harsh breaking echoed in the small tent, almost out beaten by the sounds of soldiers moving about. "We are running out of time, Kaji, to make this plan work we need her, just her. You let her slip through your fingers!"

"I... apologies.. I wont... let it happen again.."

"You're dismissed.." Kaji stood and walked out of the tent, the night sky flickered briefly before the flap closed again. Once again there was a silence in the tent. The black haired boy stood still for a few more moments before grabbing a blanket that had been discarded on the table. He walked slowly over to the woman, and placed it around her shoulders.

"Wasn't that a little harsh Vickie?" She looked up at him, anger was still the heat she body released. The empty blue eyes looked at him, giving away nothing of what was on her mind.

"Kaji plays around to much; he must learn responsibility for his actions. We did not survive this long just so that he can screw this up." She shook her head. "Its going to be harder now that both 005 and 006 know about 009. But, as long as they do not find out what she is, we may have the upper hand. The beast is still sleeping with in experiment zero."

"And with that power sleeping with in, we will not only repay our dues," He nodded, "but play out our revenge against them all."

She walked into the study quietly, far too exhausted to even manage to wait for him to answer the faint knock on the metal door. Folken was sitting at one end of the table, tired looking himself. He flipped thoughtlessly through the pages of the book in front of him. She plopped herself down into one of the other chairs, and leaned forward, laying her head on her arms. She could feel the coldness of the table against her bare arms. Today was to long, and the rest of the days for a while may end up being like this one. Neither of them spoke for a while, both to lost in their own thoughts. They mentally tried to find ways to fix this problem before it grew out of hand.

"What did he have to say?" She was the first to break the silence, now that the other two projects knew what was going on thing would be a little harder to work around. There may have been a history behind the three of them, but with the blanks in 009's memory there could be a problem developing.

"A lot of things..." Folken sighed, closing the book he had been looking through. "You don't have to stay here, Aurora, you've done more then I have asked." She shook her head, sat up and looked at him.

"I hold just as much responsibility about these kids as you do. I'm not about to let you carry all of this on your own. "Aurora waved her hand in the air. "And besides, for once I get to see you in person and not over that came com thing.. You're going to need help no matter what you think. And given that you have given into Dilandau's 'demand' that 009 will no longer be given drugs to keep her under control, you'll be welcoming the extra set of hands."

"He's right though..." Folken looked down at the red hair woman. "We've never seen what happens if her body has nothing foreign in its system... It could be a long shot, but I'm running out of ideas."

"We all are.." Aurora shrugged. "I'll move her to her room once she's stabilized. The last thing we may want is her waking up somewhere she hates, and flip into an episode."

He blew the whistle slowly and needlessly stared of at nothing, he could hear the moments of his Dragonslayers practicing their stands. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't get his mind to focus on anything. He had been back on the Vione for less then three days and he could focus. His mind would always return to the same thing, the she- demon that had not regained consciousness at all. She had been moved from the infirmary to the room she and Celena had shared. Dilandau couldn't bring himself to go near there now, memories pledged his mind. Blowing the whistle again, he watched his men's movements. Whether or not they had felt the tension that was around, they all had been quiet, not asking what was wrong with their other companion. Dilandau turned and began to pass along with training floor, half mindedly blowing the whistle. So many questions and not enough answers. He was losing sleep, and barely had an appetite. The madoushi woman continued to stay aboard the Vione, seeing to Rei's condition. Along with other things, his slayers had kept their eyes on her making sure that she did nothing that she was suppose to be doing. He dropped the whistle from his mouth, and looked down at it.

"Guimel!" He dropped his sword to his side and walked up to his lord.

"Yes sir?" he stood at attention as Dilandau's red eyes slowly fixed on his face, and he dropped the small whistle into his hand.

"See to the rest of the days work, I have something I must see to." He turned leaving the training room and the Dragonslayers in silence. They all waited until Dilandau had disappeared into the corridor before anyone of them moved.

"I don't like this.... He hasn't yelled or anything for the past few days.." Miguel said leaning against his sword. Several of the others nodded in agreement to relax. "And he's picked at his food rather then eating it.."

"I don't like this either..." Gatty said in agreement and stood next to Shesta looking down the direction that their lord had disappeared into. "A wild day, Dilandau wouldn't have even bothered to do this. The two of them were always at each others' throats... What happened?"

"She's like them..." Shesta turned and looked at the others. "Haven't you all figured it out yet? She's like him and Celena, projects, the madoushis' Guinea Pigs... Why do you think we have to watch that one lady...?" There was a silence among them, they all knew to well about their commander's and his 'sister's' past. None of them could even begin to guess what it was like to grow up that way, but they would not show pity to either of them. Pity was something Dilandau said made one weak. "We're going to have to watch her.. And make sure that madoushi doesn't do anything." They all nodded in agreement again before Gatty blew the whistle, and the continued their daily training, minds spinning in thought.

The door slide shut behind him as he walked into the room. The lights were turned off, but the sun light stream through the opened curtains. Celena wasn't in the room, and the chair by the far bed was empty. He walked slowly towards the far bed, the figure on it looked peaceful and calm. The sunlight danced over her dark tan skin. One hand rested on her stomach, something hidden by the half curled fingers. Her other arm lay out next to her with two tubes that were connected her to the plastic bag of blood, and a clear substance. Dilandau sat down on the chair, and studied her. Her long white hair had been pulled back into a loose braid that fell over the bed side. She was calm, no emotion created its lines over her smooth skin. He brushed a loose strain off her face before turning his attention to the thing under her hand. It wasn't hard to loosen it from the small black box. He turned it around a few times, studying it before opening it. There tossed about were the petals of a rose, naturally black. A part of him wanted to touch one to see if they were really, but another kept him from doing so, afraid that if he did they would disappear.

(flash back)

She turned the flower around in her hands, studying it without saying a word to him. Small bruises covered her wrists; he could see some on the exposed parts of skin. The strange blue dress reached half way down her legs, it was shredded and dirty. There were a few on her neck, covered by her shoulder length white hair. She had snuck into his and his sister's cell for sometime now. Bring them extra rations of food, along with after things. This time, he had managed to get her this, but from the way she was looking at it, made him think she had never seen one before. Frowning she looked back at him, expressionless sapphire eyes with red strikes in them look at him confused.

"What is it?" Dilandau could barely keep himself from laughing as the she-demon looked back down at the flower in her hands. He couldn't help but somewhat smile at the young she-demon carefully inspected the small rose.

"It's a rose...it's a kind of flower." She looked up at him, before holding the small black rose up again.

"R-rose? What's it do?" She looked back at him, holding out the small flower to him. He took in and spoon it in his hands for a few seconds.

"Nothing really, but it smells really sweet. See?" He held it up to her noise, causing her to sneeze. The sound echoed down the corridors, both of them froze still and awaited the sounds of the guards making their way down the hall to catch her. But, it never came; the sneeze was just another normal sound for down here. He handed the rose back to her, in which the she-demon took without a second thought. She nodded just before she slipped out of the bars that separated the cell and the hall. He followed her there, and watched her make her way down the hall, but after a few steps she stopped and turned around.

"Thank you for the gift." She waved her hand that held the small rose before becoming completely engulfed by the shadows. He walked back into the darkness where he knew his sister was, a small smile playing at his lips.

"What are you so happy about?" Celena's voice whispered into his ears as he sat down next to her. His hand found her hair as he ruffled it slightly.

"Something you wouldn't understand...."
Mwahaha another one done! Go me... will its' not as long as the other one.. (thank goodness) but still.. its lot... yes I ended this chapter on a flash back... I hope at less a few of you caught onto what he was smiling about. But o well.. This little angel has a bed calling her name.....sleep..