The muffled pounding from inside the walk-in freezer was very soothing to the ears, Ivan thought. From the sounds of it, the woman had taken off one of her high heels and was attempting to batter down the door with it.

"They haven't been feeding him much," Kotetsu said, helping Keith to sit up. "Doesn't feel like he weighs much more than you."

"I remember how big he used to be," Ivan said softly. It was hard to reconcile that memory of an enthusiastic, grinning young man with the wasted slave in front of him. They'd shaved his head, and there were old scars and fresh wounds around his wrists. Some of them had clearly been made by fingernails, others by teeth. "He never stopped trying to get out?"

Keith's eyelids fluttered. He blinked a few times, blue eyes unfocused. His lips parted, but the words that emerged were slurred.

"We should get him out of here," Ivan muttered, but Kotetsu shook his head.

"Too conspicuous to do it when he's like this. Let's take him to the kitchen and get some food in him."

"But won't his owners-"

"He doesn't have owners, Ivan," Kotetsu said sharply. "Remember, they said there was a jamming signal in there. They won't be able to call for help. Just like he wasn't."

He picked Keith up carefully and carried him to the kitchen. Once there, he stripped off his jacket, draping it around the younger man. "Ivan, can you run up to the man's bedroom and get him some clothes?"

He puttered around the kitchen for a while. There was no sense in leaving before his powers had regenerated, and Keith deserved something halfway decent in his stomach after so long on...whatever they'd been feeding him. Something horrible, and not much of it.

He had to spoon the food into Keith's mouth at first, since the younger man hadn't regained control of his limbs yet. After ten or eleven bites, he started chewing with a little more energy. After the first bowl, he moved his own hand to the spoon and started eating with ferocity.

"Careful," Kotetsu warned. "Not too much, or you'll throw up. It's been a while, hasn't it?"

Keith looked up at him, and for the first time, Kotetsu could recognize his old friend in that sunken face. It got a lot easier when Keith grinned. "I knew you'd come for me," he rasped in a voice unused to speech. "I never gave up."

Kotetsu turned away, unable to face those trusting eyes. How could Keith still say that, after years like this? Didn't he know he'd been abandoned? He opened his mouth to apologize for everything he hadn't done.

"Is Kaede all right?" Keith asked, anxious. "What about the others? Ivan, Karina, Edward, Tony, Antonio, Nathan?"

Best start with the good news. He might not be able to handle the bad otherwise. "Ivan's upstairs. He's fine. He's just getting you something to wear."

Keith looked down at himself, as if surprised to see that he was only wearing Kotetsu's stolen jacket. "Oh. Right. Thank you. And thank-"

"Nathan and Edward are dead."

Keith's mouth dropped open, and his face twisted in sudden pain. "I should have been there," he said to himself.

No, I should have. You would have, if you could have. "Tony's fine. He's out of the city. We sent all the kids with powers out a couple years ago. Antonio's with Kaede. And we're going to get Karina after you can walk."

"And Barnaby? I'm sorry," Keith said quickly at the look on Kotetsu's face, "I was just hoping..."

"Still nothing."

"Here, I found these. I know they're probably no good, but-oh! Keith, you're awake!" Ivan's arms were full of clothes, all of the finest quality, all obviously too large for Keith.

Keith didn't seem to notice. He gave Ivan a grateful smile, then tugged on a pair of pants that fit him like a circus tent. He had some trouble with the fastenings, as if he couldn't remember how buttons went through buttonholes. "It's been a while since I did this," he remarked, completely without embarrassment. "Ha! Got it."

Kotetsu made sure not to look at Ivan. He knew the sadness that would be on that expressive face. He had looked up to Keith, years ago. Now his old hero was hardly able to use buttons. "You think you can stand?" he asked Keith, careful to keep all emotion out of the words.

"I think so. Haven't tried in a while. The chains were short."

Every word he says makes me hate myself. And he doesn't even know he's doing it. "Okay," he said aloud, trying to sound like he knew what he was doing, "you look at least halfway decent. Ivan, we'll run the same ploy at Karina's place. Keith, do you want to come with us? If you're not feeling up to the task-"

"I would be glad to assist you in freeing Karina," Keith said at once. "I'm very sorry for my weakness, but I will try hard to be of help. Please accept whatever help you can from me, and I will try my hardest not to get in the way."

Kotetsu looked at the man's skinny frame, at the arm that was trembling just from the effort of holding a spoon. "How long has it been since you used your powers, Keith?"

"Since they took me. Oh, and once when the woman didn't properly secure me after a party. I almost got free, then."

"Kotetsu, look!"

Kotetsu followed Ivan's pointing finger to the TV screen-who has a TV in the kitchen?-and the words died in his throat.

"It has been decided that we cannot allow such a dangerous creature to be left alive. I have applied for, and received, special dispensation from the Mayor to euthanize the creature."

Across the bottom of the screen scrawled the words "Mr. Carlton Cromden, NEXT owner, candidate for City Council next month, makes controversial statement."

The story cut to a reporter with a microphone, milking all possible drama out of every word. "NEXT Rights advocates are up in arms over the inflammatory issue."

"Well," said a large-boned woman in a T-shirt that read "Garson for Mayor,' "I think this is a disgusting display of how far Mr. Cromden is willing to go for his campaign. It's easy for us to forget sometimes that anyone could have a NEXT as a child, you know? And I'm not saying they should be allowed to roam free wherever they want, of course. They have to be collared and controlled like any dangerous creature. I'm just saying that you shouldn't be able to put them down whenever they bite the hand that feeds them."

Now the text-scroll at the bottom read "Elisha Black, NEXT Rights Advocate, responds to property rights dispute."

"Property rights dispute?" Ivan echoed numbly.

"They pay taxes on NEXT. That couple had insurance on Keith."

"It's true," Keith chimed in. "The man who bought me was often angry at the taxes. He said they were too high."

The reporter leaned in, eyes hungry for every juicy tidbit she could squeeze out of the story. "Well, Mrs. Black, what would you say to property rights advocates who say that Mr. Cromden paid good money for the Class-H, and therefore has the right to do as he pleases?"

"You pay good money for purebred dogs, too. Doesn't mean you can treat 'em any old way."

"If I may respond to that?" Carlton Cromden was a fit man in his fifties or sixties, with salt-and-pepper hair and a trim, clean suit. "We also put purebred dogs down if they turn on their masters. If those masters do nothing and the dogs keep hurting people, the masters are to blame. Now, this Class-H escaped from my custody and caused the death of several people. If that were to happen again, I would be to blame, would I not? NEXT owners already have the authority to contain and discipline their property at discretion. They should also have the right to put down their NEXT like the dangerous animals they are! The people of this city want to be protected!"

"He's making a campaign speech." Ivan sounded sick to his stomach. "He's making a campaign speech out of hating us."

"People have been making careers out of hating us for decades," Keith said, and he was the only person who could have said such a thing without sounding pathetic.

Yuri was right. What mythical time was I waiting for? This is already happening in the world. If Mr. Legend hadn't saved me when I was a kid, I'd probably be dead already. "Not just hating us. He's making a career out of killing us. And he's going to start with Yuri."

"Who's Yuri?" Keith asked.

Kotetsu's eyes went dark. "Someone we're going to save."