Pain. Hunger. And unfamiliar surroundings. PANIC!

He scrapped his way to his feet as wave after wave of dizziness pelted him, disbalancing him as he scrabbled across the floor, he didn't know where he was. He couldn't recall anything of this place. All he knew was it wasn't home, so it wasn't safe. Nowhere was safe...

Hands suddenly picked him up, and he hissed and squirmed to escape, but it was too late. He was laid down on the lap of some man with a white beard and a rediculous hat and clothes. So what does he do? Claw at the leg desperately to get out. Unfortunately the fabric was too thick, and he couldn't scratch skin.

And when he felt the man scratching him behind the ear? He hated it! The feeling of that fat finger ruffling the fur behind his ear was more a nussence than anything. Then the hand came to the the fabric around his neck, ready to take it off, he twisted around and bit his finger. No one. touches. the fabric.

Where am I? Where's Ezio?

A sudden spark errupted in his mind. The feline instincts he had worked so hard to keep under control were beginning to take over, and with that, Yusuf forced them down deep where it would be so difficult to access them. He could vaguely reconize these faces as targets that the den leaders were going after, not other assassins at all. The man who prosistantly kept him on his lap was Manuel; this only renewed his struggles for freedom.

"What is this around your neck anyways?" He heard Manuel ponder aloud, but when he tried to reach for his headband again, Yusuf turned and bit his hand, not letting go until he tasted blood seep over his tongue. When he bit at Ezio, he at least curled his lip over his teeth so he would not hurt his friend, but this wasn't his friend. This was some old man that was hoping to start his empire back up. Manuel's hand pulled away as he sighed. "I guess I'd better not try that again..."

Yusuf glared at him and again tried to pull away. With his efforts in vain, he proceeded to make himself somewhat content through scratching at Manuel's leg. Hell, it all he could do besides hiss when he was touched, but it didn't help to free him of his entrapment.

It had been two days, and Yerman grew tired of being left in the dark. It was this morning he made his decision, he'd get answers, and now. He didn't care how he got them, just that he was enlightened on this entire situation. So his first step should have been clear as day right?

Confront Annette.

Now the woman wasn't that difficult to spot, she was standing in the library, staring at the spines of books as she was about to choose one to read. It was not hard to approach her without notice.

Loudly, he slapped his hand by her head, hitting dusty books. The sudden noise alerted her, and she spun around to face his dead serious expression. She suddenly felt smaller, the already existing height difference seemed to grow, as if she were shrinking under his gaze.

Hazel eyes wide, she squeaked, "Y-Yerman! Can I help you?"

No sign of any other emotions seemed to flicker across his face. "Evet, you can. I overheard you and the Mentor speaking the other day, and I think you can put some of the questions I have to rest."

Her skin paled, how much did he even hear? She wasn't sure.

"I want the truth, Annette, where is Yusuf, and what does that cat you found have anything to do with it?"

She bit her lips and looked elsewhere, her feet, the doorway, anywhere else but his piercing gaze. Not that Yerman was usually classifiable as "intimidating", but Annette could easily fall under the catigory of recruits who need to improve on "not being intimidated" skills. She could also be known as a "pushover", "easily confused", and, in a sense, "spineless". Though she was so enclosed with self-pity because of it, it was Ezio and a couple of older Assassins who kept her believing that she still had a chance to better herself.

"Tell me!" Yerman demanded. Okay, so maybe he could be put under "intimidating"- if you were a recruit like Annette-, but he had anger issues he had yet to work on as well. The last thing anyone wanted was to get on bad side of them.

"Okay," She never heard her voice go so high. "Yusuf, he's-"

"Still with us."

Yerman spun around to find Ezio RIGHT BEHIND HIM. Funny how the old man could always manage to remain so silent and catch anyone off guard. Annette felt weak with relief as she scurried behind the Mentor and prayed that the older recruit had enough sense not to push Ezio aside and continue his interrogation.

Quickly, Yerman composed himself, crossing his arms and staring up at him; seeing as Ezio still had him beat by an inch or two. "Is that so? Well, where is he then?"

Ezio sighed and straightened a little bit. "Yusuf had not listened to my warning when I told him to stay away from the keys on my desk. He went and tried to study one five nights ago, and it chanced him... into a cat." He paused another moment before adding, "That same cat you threw out the window."

Yerman paled, throat dry as he painfully swallowed. He wasn't aware that he was trembling.

"But, I'm very much certain that Annette has found Yusuf again," Ezio continued. "She told me that he was found in the Galata District. But he had been so badly wounded for reasons that are unknown to me. Now, I have done some investigation with the key that turned him into a cat, and I'm very much sure that I know the way to chance him back."

"Then we should!" Yerman exclaimed. "The sooner the better!"

Ezio nodded and Annette left to retrieve the cat. She returned as the feline squirmed, kicked and hissed in protest to being handled, and handed Yusuf to Ezio.

"Gazie, now let's get him back to normal."

He placed the cat down on the desk, took the key Yusuf had used to change himself into a cat in the first place, and set his paw down on the shining disk. With a sharp snap-hiss and a bright light, the two recruits staggered backwards and Ezio fell flat on his back from the force. When they finally chased the spots from their vision, they looked to where the cat had been standing on the table, to where a form laid on the floor.

They all stared with shock as they quickly learned that this was not Yusuf.

It was maybe an hour or so of petting and begudgent hisses and growls before Yusuf's luck started to change.

Vali walked in and walked straight up to Manuel.

"Pardon me, but can I see the cat?"

The hand pressed down a little harder on Yusuf's back, earning a strangled growl from the feline. "Why?"

"Um, he looks rather skinny," Vali explained. "And I was thinking that maybe he needs to be fed."

Manuel sighed and looked down at Yusuf, who stared up at him with wide "please-let-me-go-I'm-starving" eyes, before letting his hand ease off of his back. In a matter of seconds, Yusuf stood, shook his ruffled fur back in place, and jumped off of Manuel's lap to run, but Vali scooped him up from the floor and held him to his shoulder. The hold though was a lot less uncomfortable as most of the others he had been in, he did not protest to it.

"Thank you."

"I want that cat back when you're done." Manuel told him strickly. Almost like a parent to their child when the kid was borrowing something. Vali nodded and walked away, the position allowed Yusuf to see the annoyance on the old man's face as he crossed his arms.

Through a few doors, Vali then placed Yusuf down on a table. They were in what anyone could guess was a kitchen. Yusuf was on the dining room table, and Vali was searching around for something to give him. Yusuf's attention was diverted to a small, yellow bird perched on the open windowsill, so cluelessly... His stomach growled at him as the scent drifted to his nose. And with some small preperation, he jumped from the table to the counter, then up to the windowsill, where he leapt to catch the now airborn bird.

His claws caught on the wings, ripping out much need feathers as he fell down to the tiled roof below. Wings damaged, the bird came falling down, and hit the roof with a soft thump, but it still tried to move. Yusuf ran over quickly and finished it off with a bite to the neck.

Dizzy with releif and exersion, he held the bird in his mouth as he was about to lay down and feast on his catch. But Vali had climbed out the window and walked over to him, picking him up in his arms. As an after thought, he picked up the dead bird, much to Yusuf's unvoiced thanks.

"Hmm... that was interesting..." Vali noted as he climbed back into the kitchen through the window. He then put Yusuf back down on the table and put the bird on the counter. "I'll assume you just caught your own lunch."

In responce, Yusuf laid down on the table and watched as the former assassin plucked the feathers from the bird's dead skin. But before he got a chance to cook the thing, the feline stopped him by jumping over to the counter again and reclaiming his kill before leaping off the counter to the floor where he settled under the table and laid his catch down.

Hunger over-ruled his disgusted thoughts as he bit down into the raw songbird, the warm taste of blood washing over his tastebuds as sort of releif came to him with the feeling of actually having food in his belly. He didn't care if Vali decided to sit on the floor and watch, all he seemed to really think about was just the metalic, sort of salty taste the bird's flesh held.

"Nice job, kit."

He looked up to see Sevmek and Hoca staring at him in the window. Sevmek was beaming with joy, her bicolored eyes wide. Hoca seemed more at ease, his eyes half open as he stared down at him. Quickly, Yusuf finished the bird and jumped up to the counter so he could talk to the two.

"Sevmek. Hoca." He meowed. "It's good to see you both."

"Didn't think you were much a housecat," Hoca stated, gesturing to the room. "But the hunt the other day made me think you were."

Yusuf's fur grew hot for a second before his more human thoughts came back to the meal he just had. A dead, uncooked bird he killed. Suddenly he felt unsteady, but at the same time he felt some sickening form of satifaction with it. The animal instincts at this point were so hard to root out from his usual thoughts.

"We thought you'd be disabled with catnip for sure," Sevmek told him. "These notails have a tendency to do that."

He nodded. "Well I'm fine. And what about you guys?"

"For the most part, we're fine." Hoca answered. "But Hükümdar was killed by a dog... a tragic loss..."

Behind him, Vali was cleaning up the bird remains and came to the window to throw them outside. When they were disposed of, he then looked to Hoca and Sevmek with a spark of amusement. "I suppose you must be lonely... you're just stuck with Manuel, and he isn't much a listener, I know-"

"What's that notail saying?" Sevmek asked, noticing that Yusuf understood.

"So these must be your friends?" Vali guessed, then he smiled with some sort of idea. He then carried Yusuf back to the table, then he grabbed Hoca and Sevmek before they could scurry away. He placed them beside him and said hopefully, "Maybe with more of you around, Manuel won't need to keep one captive all the time."

"Um... Hoca?" Yusuf said, voice falling quiet. "I think you and Sevmek might have just become housecats."

Well ain't I a derp? I leave you all off in not just one cliffhanger, BUT TWO! I'm so evil!