Sorry about not updating in awhile, but my computer has still not been fixed and I've had a mild case of writer's block. Lucky me. But, hey, I've managed to write this chapter for you all so enjoy.

Disclaimer: Me still no own. Me never will.

Chapter 3- Pain

(Still the same in the thought and speech department)

Ichigo POV

(OK this is just after Ryou and Keiichiro left the basement)

'Huh? Where am I? What happened? Last thing I remember is…..Arrrggggghhh! That voice doesn't know when to quit. I wish it would stop laughing in my head. But…..it sounds….familiar. Like I've heard it somewhere.' I thought as I slowly took in my surroundings.

I flinched as another wave of pain washed through my head. I slowly look around to find something to stop the pain in my head. My eyes rested on morphine. I knew it wasn't right, but I need something to get rid of the pain. Knowing that I couldn't just swallow morphine, I looked for a needle to inject myself with.

My eyes quickly found what I was looking for. A packet of sterile needles. I quickly got up and grabbed a needle from the packet with my left hand, and grabbed the morphine with my right.

I quickly stuck the tip of the needle and pulled back, causing a steady flow of morphine into the needle. I wondered how much I should actually use, but that caused the voice to laugh louder, while causing me increased pain.

When the needle was half full I decided that I had enough to stop my head from exploding from the pain.

I quickly pulled up my dress…..'Wait…..what dress?' my brain seemed to ask in between the pain. 'That's right! I'm still in my Mew Mew outfit and I have no idea where my pendant is. Ryou is sooo going to kill me……' I thought.

Grabbing the needle, I pushed it into my stomach, causing me to cry out in pain. I pushed down on the needle, causing it to release morphine into my body. The pain, it started to go away.

'Pain' I thought. "Is that all humans live to endure?" I asked the empty room, hoping that it would respond. 'Even in our dreams there is pain. There is no escaping the pain, only hiding it from one ones that we care about.' I thought as I answered my own question.

I slowly felt the morphine kick in and I decided that now would be a good time to start trying to walk again. My body responded to the urge to walk and I slowly stumbled across the room towards the door, while knocking everything out of the path.

As I reached the door, I heard some people talking. The voices sounded familiar, but I couldn't work out where I had heard them. 'Too much morphine' I thought as I ran into the door. Suddenly the voices stopped. I didn't know why, but I opened the door only to see……

Ryou POV

(This is where the last chapter left off)

I heard the door open while I looked down the stairs, my mind racing. 'No one could of gotten into the room, so it must have been the aliens, or worse' I thought.

I peered down the stairs into the darkness only to see someone's eyes open a second later. As I looked down into the eyes, I saw they looked familiar. Ichigo's eyes. But they couldn't be. See was asleep down stairs and her eyes never looked as though she was on something.

Then the rest of the body came into view. It was Ichigo. She was alive and walking, but looked as though someone had given here alcohol.

I heard Keiichiro say "Ichigo" in a quiet voice, but I only had eyes Ichigo.

As though something had indeed given her alcohol, she collapsed against the wall, conscious but completely out of it.

Keiichiro and I both ran down towards Ichigo so that we could help her into the main part of the café.

"Come on Ichigo" I said. "Into the main part of the café we go" I said as a joke, not knowing that she wouldn't respond.

"Keiichiro" I said as we neared the main part of the café. "Could you please make enough tea for all of us" I asked him.

"Sure" Keiichiro replied. "Does that include the other Mews?" He asked just before he ran of to make the tea.

"May as well. They'll listen to our conversation anyway" I replied as he ran off to make some tea.

'Ichigo, you do some fat talking to get yourself out of this one' I thought as we got to the main part of the café and I sat her in a chair so that she wouldn't move or squirm or do anything that could set off a reaction in her body.

Keiichiro came out with enough tea for everyone while the other Mews followed him quickly.

Normal POV

"Ichigo!" Mint cried out as she saw her best friend in the chair that Ryou had put her in.

"Mint, could you please calm down? Clearly Ichigo is not 100 or she wouldn't be in the chair with an expression of pain plastered across her face." Zakuro stated in a calm voice, but anyone who was listening to her would be able to hear panic in her voice.

"Zakuro's right Mint. Actually it should apply to all of us. No loud noise while Ichigo is like this. Are we all clear? Keiichiro asked the group at large.

"Yes Keiichiro" we all replied meekly.

"Pain" Ichigo murmured. We all turned around quickly at the sound of Ichigo's voice. It wasn't her normal voice. It sounded like the one she had when she watched everyone and everything she cared for died. It was too horribly to mention.

"What did you say Ichigo" Ryou asked, his voice full of concern. Everyone looked at Ryou dumbfounded, that he even had an ounce of concern in his body for Ichigo.

Ryou sweat dropped. "Uhhh……Why are you all looking at me like I have just shown an emotion that doesn't exist?" He asked.

"Pain" Ichigo murmured again. "The pain won't go away. The pain is making me an empty shell, with no love or compassion," She said a little louder. "Its trying to consume me, make me into a monster that only wants to kill, but I'm not like that…am I?" She continued to murmur.

"Ichigo!" Ryou cried out. "Listen to me. You're not a monster that wants to kill everyone. You have a wonderful family. You have great friends. And you have everyone here in this room. Including me." Ryou cried.

Ichigo's blank eyes looked into everyone's crying eyes, and then the pain slowly left her body. It was slow at first, but as it left, her eyes slowly got life back into them.

Ichigo rose from the chair uncertainly and said "Thank you for bringing me back from the void I was falling into." She looked into everyone's eyes and said, "I'm home" loudly enough so that everyone could here her and welcome her back into there lives, if they would allow it of course.

Ryou looked up at those words and grabbed her into a massive bear hug. "Never ever leave us again" he murmured into her hair as he stroked it.

Everyone else caught onto what she said and started hugging her as well. With Ichigo in the middle of the biggest bear hug you have ever seen, you think that she might push them all away so that she could breathe. But again she surprised them and didn't push away.

After what seemed like forever, Ichigo gasped "Can't…..Breathe…." With this, everyone let go of her and stood back a couple of feet so that they could see her properly.

"Thanks" Ichigo murmured.

AN: Sorry for the ending, but I am sorta in trouble for not doing an assignment that I was supposed to be doing while I wrote this……

Oh well……………….