Oz came to slowly and painfully. He was on the mattress, wrists enclosed in the chains on the wall behind him. Ankles in shackles and his clothing and blanket were gone.

"So, you're finally awake. I thought you might need a lesson in what might have been. Apparently you've forgotten your time with the Initiative. I told you the truth when I told you they were finished, but I am not working alone. You were right about that. Fortunately, those I answer to are like myself, they are interested in learning and how to put that knowledge to use once it's learned. At least for now. They are not about blind violence, or meaningless cruelty, but if anything happens to me, or the political tide turns, the man who is set to take my place isn't of the same mind set. He is a soldier first and a scientist second. His goal isn't to learn and apply, his is study to destroy. With him in charge you would have no chance of getting out of here alive. And, after that little stunt you pulled, I need to make sure you understand. You know that "sweaty guy"? The one you asked me about, the one that is making me so nervous? Don't look so surprised, I know you can tell I am by my scent. He's the one, and he is just itching for something to go wrong so that he can take over. So, if I get hurt or die, or if they decide I can't handle it - can't handle you - he'll be the one in charge. At least as far as you are concerned. So, for the next few days you are going to get a reminder of who's in charge, and comparatively, a very mild taste of what it would be like if I were not."

For several days following Oz's attempt at escape, she kept true to her word. Oz was given no clothing, no blanket, and the only time he wasn't chained to the wall was during the times her experiments required it, or the four times a day he was allowed to use the bathroom. She never spoke to him unless it was a direction or correction, and she didn't acknowledge anything he said unless it was in response to her questions. The few times he had tried to force the issue; he was reprimanded with jolts from the bands. Finally, after several days, she quietly unlocked the shackles, handed him his clothing and blanket, and told him to shower.

When he was finished, she had him hold out his arm through the slot in the bars and she removed the band from that wrist. Without a word, she took the band and tossed it up toward the door at the top of the stairs. The resulting electrical jolt was loud, visible, and ended with the band thrown violently back into the room below, landing with a clatter. The smell of ozone almost overpowering to Oz's nose. Using a pair of forceps, she picked up the slightly smoking band and sat it on the desk, clearly visible to Oz.

"I think we'll just let it cool off a little." And with that she went back to her papers.

***

The weeks had begun to blend together until Oz had even lost track of the number of full moons that had passed. Without consciously realizing it, Oz had given up on thoughts of escape. With hope of escape gone he started to become lost in his memories; memories and regrets. The same memories, the same regrets. Over and over. He had learned that She wouldn't answer any of his questions unless it was a subject that she had broached first, and as she had accumulated more information from him, both from her own questions and the test results, she spent less time interacting with him and more time studying the information, leaving him alone with his thoughts for long periods of time.

"What the hell are you doing?

Oz, startled, looked up. What was she talking about? He watched as she came off the stairs and up to the cell door, looking up at her from the mattress. He suddenly realized that he hadn't really noticed that she had been gone. That had been happening a lot, and felt he probably should be worried about it. He watched as she walked away from him to the counter along the side wall where much of the diagnostic equipment set. She reached in the cabinet above and took down a bottle of antiseptic and some rolled gauze. Then from the jar on the counter she took out a handful of cotton balls. She carried them to the work desk in front of the cell, and set them down. She then pulled the chair from behind the desk and rolled it around to the other side. She came back to the cage and opened the door, motioning him to come out. Slowly he got up and walked past her out of the cage, his eyes never leaving her face. She pointed to the chair. "Sit."

After he sat down he watched her open the antiseptic and soak a cotton ball with it, still not comprehending. She took his right wrist and raised his arm. Then he looked at his arm. There were deep red scratches on the back of his forearm from elbow to wrist. Blood actively oozing from the lines. He looked at his other forearm, it matched the first. Then he looked at his fingernails, trapped underneath them were blood, some of it already dry and crusted, and flecks of skin. Another thing he had no memory of, and this time he was worried. "Damn." he said quietly.

While he had taken stock of his arms, she had been cleaning the scratches, and removing the dried blood; she then loosely wrapped the gauze around his arm, and then repeated the process on his left arm. She left him sitting in the chair, never turning her back as she retrieved her voice note recorder.

"The subject appears to have been in a semi-catatonic state. When I returned to the lab, I found him engaged in self-mutilation, using his fingernails to make numerous lacerations to both forearms. The subject appears to not have realized what he was doing. Will need to observe this development, and may need to alter protocol to help prevent such occurrences in the future.

Oz looked up, focusing on her, trying to process what she had just said. "Protocol?" He asked.

Not answering, she motioned for him to stand and led him back to the cell, locking the door behind him. "Wash your hands."

The next day she brought him a book. It wasn't worn, but obviously had been read. It held her scent as though it had shared space with her for some time. The scent was layered, newer scent on top of old. It was a nonfiction book, a book on the habitats of North American mammals with numerous photographs. The text was obviously written with a layman in mind, no scientific jargon. He took it as she handed it to him through the slot. It wasn't a book he would have picked for himself, and yet he wasn't aware of a time that he was happier to have a book in his hand. He looked her in the eye and said, "Thank you."

She simply nodded once and walked away.

After that she began to bring him things to occupy his time. More books, a Gameboy, and a guitar. The guitar he wasn't allowed to keep when she wasn't in the lab since the strings could be used as a weapon against himself. She also talked more, both to him directly and to herself as she was working; thinking out loud.

***

Oz had woken up and was getting dressed the morning after the third night of the current full moon, when he noticed something was different. It was so unexpected, and it had been so long, it took him a few moments to realize what it was. There had been strangers in the lab. He literally could smell it. As he was realizing this, She came out of the surgery suite and around the staircase. "Good morning Oz."

"What's going on?" Oz glanced over her shoulder looking behind her toward the surgery, feeling uneasy.

"I had a delivery last night, some additional equipment. I have a theory that I want to test, and I wanted to start as soon as the moon was over, while your rate of healing is as high as possible without you being in wolf-form." She walked over to the bars, an unusual, and uncharacteristic, bounce to her step, and continued. "I have been working on a theory of how lycanthropy is transferred. We know it has to be through a bite, scratches won't do it, and we know the bite has to break the skin. We also know that it isn't carried through saliva, although there are some additional enzymes there that are of interest. My theory is that it has to do with the teeth, specifically that the teeth are injecting the agent into the body. I know the contagion manifests itself in a supernatural fashion, but I believe the means with which it is spread is more mundane. I noted that you still have all of your 'adult' teeth and two wisdom teeth. The exam and the dental x-rays I took didn't show the other two. Were they pulled, or did they never come in?"

Oz wasn't sure where this was leading, but he doubted he would like it. "They never came in. The two that are there came in not long after I was bit, and I haven't been to a dentist since before then. You should know that. You said you had the records."

"I do, but there was a chance you had seen another dentist, and we missed it. Your records show that the only teeth you have ever had extracted were two, deciduous -baby- teeth when you were a child. Is that right?"

"You know it is."

"Oz, I plan on extracting one of your teeth today." She said, almost cheerfully. "That's what the delivery was for. I didn't have all the right equipment. I want to do this without general anesthesia; I don't have any help, and there is always some risk with anesthesia no matter the circumstances. So I am going to need your cooperation."

Oz shook his head in disbelief. "You want my help to help you pull one of my teeth?"

"I am going to try to make it as easy on you as possible. But you will need to do what I tell you."

"Like I have a choice." Oz crossed his arms in front of his chest.

"Not if you want to keep this as painless and easy as possible."

Oz sighed as she opened the cell and guided him into the surgery. Overnight, while he slept as the wolf, it had been outfitted with dental instruments and a dental chair. She seated him in the chair using the attached restraints on both arms and his right leg. "If you start choking, or have trouble breathing, use your left leg to kick back on the chair to let me know, otherwise stay still. There is also a head restraint attached to the chair." She indicated the straps on each side of his head. "But, I am going to trust you to hold steady on your own. Just remember you will only hurt yourself if you start to struggle, or try anything. Also, if the tooth I am trying for breaks off, which can happen even if you don't move, then I will have to try for another."

She put on her gloves, and picked up a tube of gel. "I'm going to use this to numb the gums; then I'll use this," she picked up a syringe, "to numb the entire area. Then, hopefully, I will get the tooth extracted quickly in one piece. Then I'll put it in this, "she held up a specimen jar of white liquid, "and I'll pack the socket with gauze. And, hopefully, we will be finished with that part for a month, with the exception of keeping tabs on how it's healing. Do you have any questions?"

Oz, leaned his head back, closed his eyes, and shook his head slightly.

The procedure went as planned and after packing the socket and giving him a cold pack to help keep the swelling down, she put him back in his cell.

***

It was on the third day after the procedure that Oz noticed that the skin that was just starting to close over the socket had started opening back up. He ran his tongue over the area and felt something sharp sticking out. Cautiously, he took his finger and ran it over the spot. There was definitely something there. Gingerly, he pushed on it, it didn't move. He looked up to see Her watching him. "What is it?" She asked.

"There's something there."

She walked over to the bars, picking up a light and a tongue depressor on her way. "Let me see."He came over to the bars and opened his mouth letting her use the light and the depressor to look. "It looks like bone..."

She opened the cell and led him over to the desk chair, sitting him down to get a better look. Using the depressor to move his cheek aside, she took a closer look. "I need to take a radiograph to be sure it isn't just a broken piece of bone that has worked its way through, but I think it's a tooth. It must be regenerating."

Oz looked up at her, unable to say anything due to the piece of wood still in his mouth. She leaned back removing the tongue depressor and turning off the light. "Well, let's see what we've got..."

***

The x-ray showed what she had predicted. There was a new tooth coming in to replace the one that was extracted. "Well," she said, "I didn't expect this, but I shouldn't be surprised. The lycanthropy is transferred from host to host through the teeth. You take away the teeth, the line can be broken, and so it is in the contagion's best interest to ensure that won't happen. And even in nature there is precedence. I just wonder if it will work the same way while the host is in wolf-form. I can't imagine why not, in fact it would be even more likely, since most bites happen while the host is in wolf-form and attacking. You were a rarity in that you were bitten by your cousin while he was in human-form."

***

Two weeks later she had her initial results on the tooth she had pulled, the tooth that had already grown completely back in. The results, combined with a series of experiments she had conducted while waiting, showed that there was a combination of factors that brought about the release of the contagion. The pressure of the bite triggered the release into and through the pulp of the tooth, while at the same time the enzymes of the saliva mixed with the blood of the victim causing microscopic fissures to temporarily open in the surface of the tooth freeing the toxin from the pulp of the tooth into the victim's bloodstream.

When the next full moon arrived, she pulled another tooth under general anesthesia, while he was in wolf-form. This time the procedure was more difficult, the first tooth she tried broke off, as she had warned him they could. She went ahead and removed the rest of it, but she still needed a whole one for her tests, so she pulled a second one. Fortunately this one came out easier, and whole. The next morning after he had woken up, she moved him back to his cage with an icepack. His jaw was swollen and the bruising was already beginning to show when she gave him pain medication. That night, the second of the full moon, he was unable to keep the wolf from coming out, he was barely able to put up a fight. When the transformation was complete she noticed that even in wolf-form his jaw appeared swollen, and the wolf appeared to even more discontent than usual, most likely from the pain.

When Oz regained his human form the next morning, the bruising and swelling had spread under his eye. She gave him more pain medication and led him into the surgery to examine the two empty sockets. However, the sockets weren't empty. The new teeth had already broken through the still swollen gums. Apparently being in wolf-form did hurry the regeneration process.

***

Oz watched Her as she prepared the injection. An injection usually meant sedation, and sedation usually meant something painful. The only times she used a sedative was either when she needed to work with the wolf, or when it was going to be painful. Maybe he should be thankful he thought if that was the case, because even though sedatives usually meant something that could be painful, she didn't always give him a sedative before she did something painful. When she had broken his toes, she had sedated him, but she had also wanted the breaks to be precise. She had cut each of his forearms, one while he was in human-form, the other in wolf, to compare his skin's rate of healing, and while she had sedated him before he took wolf-form to make that cut, she had not even given him a local when she made the cut to his human self.

She opened his cell door, stepping back waiting for him to come out. Oz didn't move, looking at the syringe. "Come on." She said.

When he didn't move she activated the bands and the tingling sensation filled his body. Oz still didn't move.

"Don't be ridiculous, you know how this will end. Come on."

Oz stood his ground, but the jolt she gave him caused him to stumble and gasp.

"Damn it, Oz! Out here now!"

Oz bent over, hands on knees, catching his breath. Then he looked up at her. "No."

This time the jolt knocked him to the floor and he vomited.

"That was your last chance." Her voice was unnaturally calm. "Out here now, or I will drag your unconscious body out here."

She watched as Oz slowly tried to stand. It took him three tries before he was able to stand, somewhat shakily, upright. He took two trembling breaths, eyes watering, then slowly put one foot in front of the other. She stood back to allow him entrance to the room, and gestured toward the exam table. Oz slowly made his way, only stumbling once. When he finally reached it, he realized he wasn't going to be able to get on to it without help, even using the pulled out step.

"Go on. Get up there and lie back."

Oz put one hand on the table to brace himself and put one foot on the step, then tried to bring up his second foot, but his knee buckled throwing him chin first against the table. The impact was hard enough that he bit his tongue.

"Here." She grabbed him under his arms, half-lifting him to his feet, and then helped manage to get him lying on the table. She buckled the restraints, and took the capped syringe out of the pocket of her lab coat where she had put it while he made his way across the room. She started to rub his arm with an alcohol swab, but seeing the hematoma from the last blood draw, she switched to the other side. She then slowly injected the drug into his vein. He was unconscious before the plunger had stopped.

When Oz awoke he was still secured to the table and he felt a repetitive twinge in his abdomen. He turned his head slightly and saw a syringe lying on the counter between the blood analyzer and the microscope. It had a long needle and was filled with a yellowish liquid. He turned his head in the other direction, and saw Her standing with her back to him, talking into the recorder, apparently not realizing he was awake. Oz closed his eyes, listening.

"On the one hand, we almost couldn't have asked for a better subject, particularly in studying the mechanics of the change as well as the psychological impact on the werewolf's human form, and those around him. However, I do feel the addition of a second test subject would help us to gain a broader knowledge base. The question then becomes where do we find our second subject? The two most obvious choices would be Nina Ash and this subject's cousin. We know the full history of these two and they are easily located. However, Ash would be more of a risk as it is unlikely that the vampire would let her disappearance go unchallenged, and we definitely would not want him involved. The cousin is less of a risk, but we might be provided with more information if the next subject was not so genetically close to this one…"

Still not realizing Oz was awake, she had moved next to the exam table, and had rested her left hand on the table next to Oz's head, her right still holding the recorder as she talked into it. Suddenly, Oz turned his head, teeth aiming for her hand; if he hadn't still been under the effects of the sedative, he might have succeeded. As it was his movement was just slow enough that she was able to jerk her hand away just as his teeth touched skin.

"Shit!" She yelled jumping away from the table. She ran to the sink and started scrubbing her hand, then taking bleach out from under the sink she poured it directly over the skin. Waited a minute, and then started scrubbing again. When she turned back to Oz her eyes were filled with anger her voice cold and too calm. "You little bastard." She said and touched her bracelet activating the bands.

The shocks hit him over and over in waves as Oz screamed. They had barely stopped before she had released the restraints and shoved Oz off the table to the floor. She half dragged half shoved him back into the cage against the wall, hooking him to the chains. She slapped him across the face, exited the cell, slamming the door behind her and stomped up the stairs out of the lab.

Oz hung from the chains, shaking and shaken. His body tried to vomit, but there wasn't anything to come up, he began dry heaving until his throat burned and his eyes watered. He then lost consciousness. When he awoke, she still hadn't returned and he could tell he had only minutes until sunset. It was the first night of the moon. He had no doubt that he would not be able to control the wolf. When the change came, he was still alone.