AN: Okay, this is chapter 3. There have been some sections added into this from the original chapter. So it's been chopped about a bit. But yeah, hopefully that hasn't detracted from it. I have tried to make it fit together. I had to cut out a piece of plot too, 'cause it interrupted something else... So yeah... This chapter is now much slower. Please bear with it. It picks up the pace next chapter. Oh and Kratos won't be like this forever. Next chapter will show a very different (hopefully cute) side of him – and the plot will move on more!

Also, sorry for the delay; I was doing Camp NaNoWriMo. It has now been postponed because I made some pretty bad mistakes at the start took ages to fix it then hurt my hand like a moron. So the days I've lost due to that and the fact that my birthday and two friends' birthdays are in what remains of this month means that with the amount my hand can cope with in writing, I can't write enough in the amount of time I have left to finish... So my August will be nice and fully booked.

But I do turn get to turn 18 this weekend. Adulthood... I really hope this doesn't means I'll have to start sorting out my car insurance before next year...

Disclaimer: I don't own ToS, but I do own this little bit of fluff and stuff...

Yuan sighed, beginning the difficult process of extricating himself from the sleeping subject in his lap. He'd already wasted too much time rocking the child pointlessly, despite the lack of consciousness from said experimental subject. He definitely needed to get that bath for the boy and as soon as that task was complete, this lab coat was being washed. More than once.

Finally free, with the child still peacefully sleeping, Yuan made it to the door and keyed in the code to get out, unable to resist turning back to the figure before he could press the final digit.

"Stay here. I'll be right back, I promise," he called softly to the boy, frowning as he realised how pointless this was.

This was a subject, who couldn't go anywhere on account of being locked in, and it was hardly like the child was attached to him enough to actually care if he was there and was returning or not. But still, something told him it was the right thing to say and it was the same something that had guided him to hug the fragile creature in the first place. It seemed like the decision to go with that feeling had been the right one there, so why shouldn't he go with it? Even if it didn't seem like a rational, logical action.

That or the sleep deprivation was finally catching up with him. Either way, if it helped him to make this project a success, he'd take it. He knew full well that if he made this work, a promotion would be a certainty. Then he could take himself back up to the tech labs and work on what he liked best; magitechnology.

Full of determination, Yuan navigated the many bright, white corridors of the facility, pointedly ignoring all the operatives he passed as they went on with their daily activities. No-one ever spoke in the corridors of the A ranked areas; it was assumed that ears were everywhere and even your thoughts weren't your own and could be used by a subject as means of escape or attack.

Granted, there wasn't much talk in the main sections of the lower ranking areas where exsphere research was carried out either, but there it was mostly due to the workload. Each operative there would be responsible for a large number of subjects. In the A rank areas, operatives never had more than five subjects under their control and each subject would be a separate project. Exsphere research would use at least twenty subjects per project.

Yuan was just glad his project hadn't been in that department. The large number of subjects meant a large number of operatives and teamwork was not his strong point. He preferred to go solo and work on things that would stimulate his brain, give him something worthwhile to do. And if that was figuring out how to give his subject a bath then so be it.

He halted at the full metal door in front of him, entering the code for entry in record timing. The mechanism instantly recognised his weight on the pressure pad and swung open. Here, nothing was left to chance.

The woman inside looked up, startled, a thick book still held between her fingers as she jumped up from the armchair she'd been sitting in. As she recognised him, her features fell into a frown, but Yuan ignored it, instead striding past her to the small, in-built closet that tagged onto the side of the kitchenette.

"Yuan, what-" she began, moving over to him, though out of the way of the modest objects he was throwing behind him into the room.

He cut her short, turning to glance at her disapproving figure before continuing to empty the closet in a haphazard way. "Where's my old bath?" was his query.

Dara appeared taken aback for a moment, wondering, "Why would you need a metal tub?"

Then she waved him out of the way with a shooing gesture as he gave the short, simple response of, "Because I want to give the subj- the kid a bath."

She daintily picked her way across the storage boxes, books, Facility-approved testing toys and the clothes rack Yuan had managed to upset, to haul a grey, metallic tub out of the closet and in front of her son, who stared in awe at how easily it had been located. Now, she was smirking in amusement.

"And that's why you should just ask for things and not barge right in and make a mess that will take me until you leave work to clean up," she scolded, wagging a finger to him. "Honestly, Yuan you could be more careful; I didn't even know we had so many books..." She sighed, shaking her head in disapproval at the various items scattered all over her floor before turning back to her son with another amused smile. "Go on then, you've got your tub. Haven't you got a child to clean up?"

Cheeks flushing pink with embarrassment, Yuan picked up the bath, which, thankfully, was just the right size for the petite boy in cell 709 and replied, "Yeah, well.. Thanks Mother, I'll see you later."

He turned away, hefting the bath onto his shoulder. Dara called him back. "Yuan, wait!" she called, smiling softly at her son as he obediently paused, looking over his shoulder at her. "Make sure you dip your elbow in it to test the temperature. A child's skin is more sensitive and your elbows are more like it than your hand," she advised.

He nodded once and moved towards the door again but she stopped him a second time.

"And Yuan," she added, her blue eyes meeting his green as he spun round impatiently. "Be careful," she said quietly, like he was doing something more dangerous, like she was worried about he might fall over and hurt himself.

"I'm always careful," he responded dismissively, rolling his eyes. "I'm not a kid anymore, Mother. I'm just cleaning one."

She laughed softly, sounding almost forced. "I know, but you're still my baby."

He flushed an embarrassed red, the tips of the almost imperceptible points of ears turning a darker shade than the rest of him before he caught the laughter in her eyes and turned himself back to the door again, determined not to look at her.

"Bye, Mother," he mumbled quickly, keying in the code with even faster fingers.

Dara's smile widened as she watched him leave, throwing the bath out of the door ahead of him to get around the obstacle of the pressure pad and instant door closure, and still managing to give her a quick, sheepish wave as the metal barrier crashed between them, the facility separating them once again, as it always would as long as she was a subject there and he was a researcher.

But as usual, they both stubbornly ignored it. Dara didn't see her son's smile fade and both his eyes and his expression harden once the door was closed and neither did he see the sadness in her eyes or the way she shook her head. It was just another day. And as usual, there was no time to linger as mother and son. Only time for work, as always.

Sleep was dreamless this time. It was like he was floating in the dark, only the dark wasn't scary anymore. It was like a blanket, the nice, fluffy kind – a cloud he couldn't see. It wasn't like the dreams he savoured in the cell, the ones in which he was happy, but at the same time, he thought he was.

But this, like the happy dreams, was over too soon too and his eyes were snapping open at a loud crash to reveal the whitewashed ceiling of the small room he was imprisoned in and the door closing behind a blue-haired figure in a grubby lab coat.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Kratos. Did I wake you up?" Yuan asked, pushing back his hair with a smile and shrugging his shoulders.

The child blinked, Yuan going back to the metal bath that sat by his feet. It made a horrible grating sound as he dragged it across the floor, causing Kratos to whimper and wince. Once it was there, he straightened and looked down at the object, examining it with his eyes before going back to the door.

"I'll be back in a minute, Kratos," he said, touching the box suspended on the wall out of a child's reach and pressing his fingers to it in different orders. "I need to get you some water for that bath."

Then he was gone again. Kratos cocked his head to one side, fighting with his instincts. He wanted to go look at the new object but he didn't know when or even if Yuan was coming back or if it would be the other man. And from experience, new items didn't always lead to good things. The only good thing that had been put in his cell since he had been locked into it was the blanket he slept under. It was probably better for him to stay away.

Yuan returned, this time with one bucket hooked over his elbow and another in his hand. He spared Kratos only a quick, "Hello, Kratos" before setting one bucket down on the ground by the bath and pouring the clear contents of the other into the bath. The other bucket quickly followed suit, the child leaning onto the edge of the bed, craning his neck to see that the bath was now partway full as Yuan dipped a finger into it.

"Hm, needs more hot," he said quietly, absentmindedly wiping the dripping digit on his lab coat. "I won't be long," he added with a smile for Kratos as he retrieved the two buckets and headed for the door for a second time.

Kratos watched the man leave, his eyes sticking to the spot he had last seen Yuan even after the door had clicked closed and blocked his view. It was safer. It was safer than looking elsewhere. If he looked at the bath, he would want to go to it, to have a look at it. And it might hurt him like the box they gave him when he first got here. Yuan had touched the liquid in the bath so he thought it shouldn't hurt him but that other man had touched the box too. But when Kratos had touched the box it had flashed blue and burnt him, sending fiery electricity searing through his skin.

The door opened again, sending a different kind of jolt through the boy as he shot backwards on the bed, sitting bolt upright, inwardly panicking, wishing for it to be Yuan and not the man coming back to shout and hurt him again.

It was and, for some reason, Kratos felt his heartbeat calming again, watching the blue-haired man struggle with the two brimming buckets he carried and the bundle of towelling he had tucked in his lab coat. Yuan hadn't hurt him yet. And he hadn't shouted. And that should have put Kratos on edge but it didn't. Instead, it made him feel safer and that was stupid too; his mother had made him feel safe too but she hadn't kept him safe. He had still ended up here. So what was true and what wasn't? How should he feel?

He didn't know and that wasn't gratifying either. He felt lost, more lost than he'd felt before and he didn't know how to be found again. He tucked his knees under his chin and hugged them tightly. It wasn't as good as his mother's hugs. It wasn't even as good as Yuan's hug had been. It was just himself and his own bony arms. He wanted his mother. Why hadn't she found him yet? She promised. She promised she was coming back.

"Right then." Yuan's voice made him jump, emitting a startled squeak and burying his face in his knees. "I've filled it most of the way; I've dipped my elbow in it so it won't burn you and I've got some soap and a towel to dry you off. Now I've just got to get you in it."

He heard the footsteps but didn't open his eyes. The man's voice came from just next to him and he felt the warm hand close around his small shoulder. "Come on, Kratos. It's bath time."

Even then, his eyes remained stubbornly shut. He knew how this was going to end. First Yuan had been nice to him, then came the new object and now there was only one way this could end. The lab coat wearing man had made him feel safe and now he was going to put him into that bath and it would hurt him. And it wasn't fair.

Yuan was the only person who had been nice to him while he'd been here and not hurt him afterwards. If he turned out to be nasty then Kratos wouldn't be able to understand anything anymore. Why couldn't everyone just be like they were at home, where if people didn't like you then they stayed away and most people were really nice?

"Hey, Kratos, are you listening to me?"

His knees were tugged down from his face. It wasn't a forceful gesture; it was just Yuan trying to uncurl the child, but it was to Kratos. To Kratos, it was Yuan pulling his little world apart. Because that was what was going to happen, he was sure of it. He only screwed his eyes closed more tightly, hoping to block out this horrible world he didn't understand, block out the destruction of the world he did understand and disappear into the world he'd lost, where everything had been simple and happy and bright.

"Kratos, you're getting in the bath if I have to put you in it," Yuan added impatiently, one of his hands grabbing the boy's tiny wrist while the other hand tugged at the material of his too big tunic. "Come on now, before it gets cold."

Kratos' lip quivered. The grip on his wrist wasn't as tight as the other man's; it was firm but it didn't make him want to scream. He still wanted to cry though. He heard Yuan sigh, the man clearly fed up with waiting for him. The next thing he knew, his arm was being forced back through the sleeve of his shirt, which was then pulled roughly over his head and discarded.

His eyes snapped open, tears flowing freely down his pale cheeks as he cried out, jerking away, a look of horror on his face. A flash of a feral face momentarily stunned him. Here it came. Here came the fire. Here came the pain.

When would they stop?

Yuan drew back sharply, unable to suppress the sharp intake of breath before slamming his hand down over his mouth and dropping the dirty tunic on the floor at his feet. On the metal bed, the subject sobbed, curled in on itself, in a little ball in the corner, where it had scuttled as soon as the shirt had been removed. The half-elf shook his head and joined it on the bed, pulling it onto his lap and rubbing at its arm. He couldn't bring himself to touch the sores and burns of the back before him, mottled with half-healed wounds, scabs and scars.

That cemented it. This subject had been handled badly. If the guy Yuan had taken Kratos' case from hadn't been fired or at least punished, it would be a gross injustice. Yuan gritted his teeth biting down on the anger that now coursed through him and looking down at the subject to distract himself. It didn't help. It only made him more furious to see how fragile and frightened this child was.

He shook his head. All he could think of was damage control; nothing else would actually help the situation. Any unwanted feelings of anger would only be picked up on by the subject and therefore set back his progress in gaining the trust he would need both to teach to it speak and to get the information that would complete the project.

More importantly right now though was cleaning out those injuries and to do that, it was imperative to get the subject into the bath, which he hoped was still warm at least. He looped an arm around the subject, one hand supporting his head and gently feathering his hair while his other held the weight of the feather light figure he supported. Then he slowly stood and sat down, the subject still in his arms, next to the bath.

He hushed it as it continued to quietly cry. "Hey, hey, I'm not going to hurt you. Honestly, I'm not going to hurt you. But I've got to get you in this tub or those might get infected and we don't want that, do we?"

With that, he gently tugged the rest of the subject's clothing off, the subject writhing as if in pain, covering its face, almost clawing at it. It was disturbingly silent now, though tears were still tumbling from beneath its hands. Yuan found himself unable to resist pulling the hands away with one of his own, wiping away the tears carefully with the other.

"Hey, don't cry," he soothed, "it's alright. I'm not hurting you. What are all these tears for?"

The subject's eyes had opened at the sound of his voice. It now stared silently up at him, its eyes still wide, wild and fearful but its body limp. Yuan took the fragile form and lifted it, gently slipping it into the warm water of the bath, his hand lingering behind its head just in case it slipped, not wanting it to sustain any further injury or experience any more pain.

The subject's eyes grew even wider, its expression surprised. Yuan smiled encouragingly, watching as it spread its fingers and pushed through the surface of the water, separating it. It was the closest thing to play that Yuan had seen from the subject. It was the closest to being happy that Yuan had seen the subject be. Even when sleeping, the child hadn't quite looked at peace.

Now content that the subject was safely in the bath, Yuan fished a flannel from his pocket and dipped it in the water before gently rubbing the subjects shoulder with it. The flesh he cleaned barely even moved, the subject hardly flinching this time. Yuan's small smile briefly widened at this. This meant the subject was starting to trust him. This meant progress.

He carefully scrubbed the rest of the dirty arm before him, moving quickly on to the second, working efficiently as an operative of the Facility should, even though this process was not exactly as protocol dictated. If Yuan had been following protocol, he would have had to chain the subject's hands and feet to limit movement and lead it to the exsphere research area to use the communal showering facilities there. But that would have jeopardised the project's progress. Besides, there wasn't anything in the rules that forbade the actions Yuan had taken. He was just taking his initiative.

This way, in the bath, the subject was very compliant, content just to sit, enthralled by the water beneath its fingers, while Yuan cleaned the dirt and dried blood from both arms and even its neck, getting away with only a minor wince from that action. It didn't even seem too frightened. Well, no more than usual anyway, and that was a bonus. That was how Yuan wanted it to be.

Yuan pulled back, scanning the subject with his keen, green eyes, those eyes falling on the area he would have to clean next, the one he was least looking forward to sorting out – the subject's battered back. He grimaced, feeling his toes curl in his shoes at the thought of touching the half-healed wounds that marred the pale skin that stretch over the subject's young skeleton. A cold, furious revulsion filled him, his features moulding into a perfect expression of disgust. It was disgusting. It was so counterproductive to do such things to such vulnerable subjects. It only lost information with the life it took. But at least this time, all wasn't lost. Yuan would make sure of that. He promised himself.

He wouldn't let this life's information go to waste. He was going to do this properly, if not completely by the book then completely by his own rules, his – dare he even think it – morals. Letting this subject's injuries become infected certainly didn't fit well with either of those things. He sighed. There was no way around it.

"I'm sorry, Kratos," he said, softly, reaching out to feather the subject's hair with his soaked hand.

The subject's attention snapped to him, wide, innocent eyes taking in his own apologetic ones. It blinked in shock as a droplet of water dripped from Yuan's retreating hand onto the tip of its nose and ran off, dropping into the water with a small 'plop'. A gasp escaped its lips before those lips pressed together in something that could have become a smile but didn't as its eyes widened again and returned anxiously to Yuan.

"This is going to hurt a bit, okay?" he told those eyes. Then he reconsidered. Why was he even bothering to sugar-coat this? It wasn't like the subject could actually understand him. It wasn't even like this was a real child. It was a subject. Yuan couldn't start thinking about it like it was the same as everyone else he knew. He was only going to get the information he needed and go off to the tech labs to forget about it anyway.

His mother's caring face flashed before his eyes. He wasn't sure why. Well, he was, but it didn't bear thinking about. She wasn't just a subject. She was nothing like the summoner's son in front of him. She may have started out that way but she was a person like anyone else he knew. Except she wasn't. She was his mother. She was better than everyone else he knew. He loved her. He didn't care for anyone else, especially not a subject.

It wasn't worth thinking about. He had a task to finish; that took priority. Until he had that information, it wasn't worth thinking about anything else. It was only a waste of his own resources.

"Alright, this is probably going to hurt a lot. Just don't blame me, okay? I'm not doing this because I want to. It's for your own good," he said, hoping to see some understanding in those eyes.

He didn't of course. It was an empty wish but one he could never help but make. With a sigh and a slightly self-scorning smile, he lifted the flannel out of the water, braced one hand on the subject's shoulder and began to clean.

The subject howled.

The pain was blinding, a red, fiery inferno that raged everywhere that was anywhere and several places that weren't. All he could see was black and red that danced mockingly in front of his face like a picture he had drawn that had come alive to eat him up. All he could hear was this horrible, keening screech that pulsed through his head, the pressure crashing through his skull.

He might have been screaming. He might have been crying. He might have been apologising needlessly again. He might even have died, except he knew he hadn't because if he was dead then it wouldn't hurt so much. Unless he really had been that naughty because hell would hurt a lot, he thought, and if he was in hell then it would serve him right.

The pain slowly dulled and there was a bang and he thought that maybe he was dead. Maybe the pain had been what it felt like to die. It was horrible. He never wanted to do it again. But if he was really dead then he didn't think he'd have to.

But then the bang went away and he could hear the sound of someone sobbing. He wanted to apologise to them. He wasn't sure why. Then he realised it was him and he didn't want to apologise anymore. He just wanted to cry even more.

Yuan was still there, looking at him grimly. That just made Kratos feel worse. Why did they have to do this to him? It wasn't fair! They'd taken everything away from him! They had taken him away from everything he knew, everyone he cared about, all that was right and nice about the world. And just when he'd thought he'd found something to remind him that the world wasn't bad, just when he thought there was someone who wasn't the wrong way around and nasty when he had been told people were good, they had to take that away from him too.

"It's for your own good," the man whispered. "It's for your own good."

He reached a large hand towards the distraught boy. Kratos screamed, hoping that the sound could carry him away from here, hoping it would block out this harsh reality. He would have curled into a ball, as small as he could be, or ran or hid but his body was so weak now. He wasn't sure if he was even feeling anything real with it at all. All he could to was screw his eyes shut as tightly as he could, so he didn't have to watch, didn't have to know it was Yuan who was hurting him, could believe that for once he was right and the man with the blue hair was nice and he was kind to him and wasn't as horrible as the other man. And that all of that pain never happened. It was all just a terrifying nightmare he could wake up from and be at home.

But that wasn't to be. He felt the man's arms close around him, felt himself being lifted, something dry, warm and soft wrapping around him, covering and drying his entire body. Still, he kept his eyes closed, clinging to the belief that he could be safe and escape from what was real into what should be real but wasn't anymore. And then the soft thing was gone, and it was replaced with something less soft, a thinner cloth that was warm like a hug only without the arms of another person. A hug from the air.

Then it was a real hug and he wasn't on the floor anymore. Now he was really in the air. Now he wasn't and he was still in the hug, still being held. His eyes opened, meeting the green ones of Yuan, who smiled and hushed him.

Kratos wanted to scramble away, escape from the man he couldn't understand, who had both given him his kindness and hope and hurt him and taken the hope away. But his body felt cold, so cold and tired and weak. And he couldn't even hold his head up anymore. It fell limply onto the man's black clad chest, where he could hear that heartbeat again, that calming, steady thump, continuous, simple, unchanging like life in the village had been before he had been taken here.

Tears flowed freely down his frozen cheeks as he tried not to compare Yuan to his mother. Yuan smelled different, smelled wrong, and wasn't as soft and didn't sing like his mother did. But he was softer now than he was before.

The boy noticed the lab coat wasn't worn by the man anymore; it was wrapped around him. He knew it was wrong because he didn't understand Yuan anymore, never really had aside from his belief that people were good, the belief that wasn't right anymore, but he was still grateful for it.

It didn't stop the pain of betrayal though or the sharp sting of being wrong again, of not knowing anything and being completely lost in a world so alien to his own that he wondered if he was a dream himself, dreamed up by the nasty men.

Wrapped in the lab coat of the stranger he had thought he knew, Kratos cried himself into a state of unconsciousness.

AN: Okay, chaptire trois est fini! Yeah, I don't know what else to say down here that I haven't already up top... Except that I've already got some of the next chapter (that was supposed to be in this chapter) written out so next update should be quicker. But I couldn't fit it into this 5000 word monster with all the other stuff I felt I had to fit into the fic. In fact, hardly any of the original chapter 3 that I wrote out by hand in my notebook so long ago is actually in the finished product...

Also, the repetitiveness will cease. And Kratos will not keep sleeping all the time. Sorry guys, but it will get better. You'll see why I have to do this now later on.

But yeah, I hope you liked it and if not, if it seemed a bit too slow, please stick with it; I have got some really great things planned for this fic, both coming soon (you will see hints in the next chapter) and later on. So yeah, here's hoping you stick around!

Thanks to all you amazing reviewers! You guys not only help me to write better but inspire me to write more and update more quickly and put a big grin on my face.

So thanks for reading! I think this might even end up being the last thing I upload while I'm still 17 (and not yet acting like that let alone 18 ^_^)... Though I'll try to update something else before the weekend's celebrating.

Now I need to go get some sleep...

Until next time (hopefully),

~ThePurpleRose