A/N: dang! seriously! on a roll! enjoy!

Chapter 23: Find Me

"Welcome back, 102," Keiji smirked, smugly as he opened a cell door for Ryooshi and she trudged in, head bowed, tail and ears down. "Or maybe I should call you our little huntress, huh?"

She held back a sigh as she curled herself into a corner and lowered her chin onto her paws. She had been afraid they would start calling her that. Then again, some of the others had names meaning similar things, but the humans never called them anything but 'mutt.'

"Alright, mutt," Keiji called through the bars as he shut the cell door and locked it. "You'd better get some rest. You're gonna be real busy later."

"That so?" Ryooshi muttered.

"Oh yeah," Keiji nodded, leaning on the bars. "We set up a new program while you were gone, and you're on the list of candidates."

Ryooshi lifted her head and cocked her head to the side, curiously as she asked, "Me?"

"Yup," Keiji nodded again, smirking sadistically.

"What program is it?" Ryooshi wondered, hesitantly. She could only imagine what these ruthless killers had in store for her.

"It's a breeding program," Keiji replied and leaned off the bars to walk away. Ryooshi shot to her feet, assuming her human form, and ran to the bars to try to catch Keiji, her heart pounding in panic.

"What the hell are you talking about a breeding program?!" Ryooshi snarled. "I won't have any part of it! I'm not making little killing machines for you! Get back here! Keiji! I won't do it!"

Ryooshi watched as Keiji walked away without another word, her hands gripping the bars and she leaned her forehead against the bars. So, they were breeding their the wolves they used now. She wouldn't do it. If she ever had pups, they wouldn't be used to be trained into killing machines. She wondered who they would choose to get her pregnant. Whoever it was, she wasn't about to let him anywhere near her.

"Get in there ya damn mutt!"

Ryooshi jumped at the sound of the man's voice and turned to the cage next to her to see a she-wolf with blonde fur and a thin red band over her forehead with a white 'U' stitched in the center thrown into the cell. She smacked against the wall and fell onto her side on the ground. Ryooshi hurried to the bars separating her from the new wolf, thinking she was seriously hurt, but to her surprise, the blonde wolf jumped to her feet and snarled at the cage as it shut.

"Snarl all you want, you're doing it next time!" the man growled back, shutting the cage door. The she-wolf ran to the bars and tried grabbing his arm in her fangs, but he stepped away from the door, quickly then pounded a metal baton against the bars, shouting, "Shut up!"

He walked away and the she-wolf growled at him then began pacing around her cell. She turned to Ryooshi, feeling herself being stared at and Ryooshi quickly sat and looked away from her.

"What's wrong?" the she-wolf wondered, lying down.

"I didn't mean to stare," Ryooshi replied. "I was just wondering if you were ok. I guess you are."

"That's nice of you," the blonde wolf replied, cheerfully. "You new here, too?"

"Sort of," Ryooshi muttered then decided to change the subject. "What was that Wolf Hunter so mad at you for?"

"Oh, I refused to let them breed me," she replied, licking at a scratch on her foreleg. "By the way, my name's Unaru. What's yours?"

"Ryooshi," she replied. "Is that what the U is for on your headband?"

"Yup," Unaru nodded and stood, appearing in her human form, to walk to the bars that divided the two she-wolves.

Ryooshi took a chance to examine her. Unaru was pretty, and couldn't have been any older than Toboe. Her hair was straighter than straight and fell in front of her face at jaw length, held out of her golden eyes by the headband and short in the back. She wore a golden fur-lined vest tied with a leather string in the front, striped arm warmers that reached from her wrist to mid-bicep. Her jeans had fur cuffs at the ankles that matched her vest and she wore short-top, tan boots.

"So, Ryooshi," Unaru chirped. "How'd they get you here? You can't tell me you willingly joined this outfit."

"Well, they threatened some friends of mine," Ryooshi replied, hesitantly. "They said they'd kill them if I didn't come back."

"Come back?" Unaru echoed. "You were a Hell-Hound before?"

"Are they really calling us that?" Ryooshi wondered and Unaru nodded. "They didn't when I was one."

"So how'd they get you here the first time?" Unaru rephrased.

"Fear," Ryooshi sighed, leaning her head back against the stone wall she was leaning against. "They said they'd kill us if we didn't join. Like a coward, I accepted."

"That's not cowardly," Unaru scoffed and Ryooshi shot her gaze at the other she-wolf in disbelief. "It's survival instincts. That's what you did to survive, right? I can tell you didn't like being here, any more than I do right now."

There was silence for a moment and Ryooshi gave a small smile and nodded then asked, "How'd you get here?"

"They saw how I fought and caught me," Unaru replied then muttered, "Drag me here in a cage then try to breed me with an ugly S.O.B."

Ryooshi giggled at Unaru's mutterings and asked, "How long have you been here?"

"A week. You?"

"I just got here yesterday. Processing took forever to get to me."

There was another moment of silence before Unaru asked, "So, these friends of yours, is it your pack?"

"Yes and no," Ryooshi replied. "I thought maybe I could be one of them, but I just brought trouble for them."

"Wolf Hunters tracked you down?" Unaru guessed and Ryooshi nodded. "Well, you better make up your mind about whether or not you're part of their pack, 'cause when we get outta here, you're gonna need somewhere to go."

Ryooshi shot her gaze at Unaru as she sat back, her hands cradling the back of her head and bringing one knee up to lean the other on top of it.

"Get outta here?" Ryooshi breathed and Unaru peeked at her with a sly smirk.

"Call it female intuition, but I have a feeling that tomorrow, we're gonna be sprung," she grinned and frowned when Ryooshi only stared at her with wide eyes. "Hey, turn that frown up-side down! Be happy! We're getting' outta here!"

"102," Keiji suddenly called from in front of her cage door, making both she-wolves jump with a start and look at him. "Time to get humping."

"Sick bastard!" Unaru growled, launching from her place to the bars of her cell in her wolf form and snapping her jaws at him. "You leave her alone!"

"Made a friend already, have you, 102?" Keiji smirked, smugly at Unaru whose jaws were just out of reach to bite him as he unlocked the cell door. "Try not to rope her into your escape conspiracy, huh? She'll only get killed."

"It's you whose gonna be killed!" Unaru growled, back in her human form and her hands clenching the bars. "And I'm gonna be the one to kill you!"

"I'm so scared," Keiji shuddered, mockingly as he opened the door to Ryooshi's cell, a chain link choker leash in his hand. Ryooshi stood in her wolf form so he could slip the leash onto her neck and he pulled her roughly from the cell.

"Bite him in the balls, Ryooshi!" Unaru suggested as they passed her cage. "Don't let 'em take you in there! The male they set you up with is gonna be ugly as hell! Don't do it!"

"Shut up!" Keiji snarled, and hit his baton on the bars of her cell as Ryooshi lowered her head and obediently let him lead her down the row of cages to a door at the end of the isle.

"She reminds me a bit of you, 102," Keiji smirked, evilly. "All full of fire and optimism. Now look at you. Obedient and sedate. Just like a pet. And most importantly, you're very loyal."

That made Ryooshi stop dead just before the door. Keiji felt the tug on her leash and stopped to frown at her. She was just standing there. She wasn't struggling, or trying to slip the leash from her neck, or trying to run away, she just stood. She stood and thought.

She thought about when she'd met Kiba, how happy she was to see another wolf in the city. She'd been so happy because she thought the Wolf Hunters had gotten there and wiped all of them out. She remembered when she met Toboe, how he'd helped her out of the rain. Memories of Hige and Blue followed, how she'd envied their love for each other.

Then came thoughts of Tsume. The one she loved. The one she'd really been protecting by coming here. The thought of letting the Wolf Hunters breed her to make more Hell-Hounds made her dig her claws into the ground. The thought of betraying her love for Tsume made her hairs on the back of her neck stand on end.

She growled, lowly, every muscle in her body tensed and filled with the urge to kill. The urge to kill those who wanted her to betray the one she loved. The urge to kill those who took her away from him. The urge to kill Keiji and all Wolf Hunters.

"I'm loyal, alright," Ryooshi growled, softly as she slowly turning her jade eyes to Keiji. "Loyal to who I am, and who I love, and to my friends. You're not using me to make little killing machines. I won't let you!"

"Aren't you a little old for a rebellion?" Keiji smirked smugly then yanked on her chain, but she ignored the pain it surged into her neck and held herself in her place.

"I'm not your pet!" she snarled. "I'm a wolf, dammit! My name is not 'mutt' or '102'! My name is Ryooshi and I'm good damn proud of it!"

"I hate these speeches," Keiji sighed in exasperation.

He reached to his belt and Ryooshi knew he was going for some kind of weapon. She growled and leapt at him before he could pull whatever it was from his belt and clamped her fangs down onto his arm holding the leash. He cried out in pain and a few men came to help him but Ryooshi let go of his arm, leapt over the men and ran back down the isle. Shouts followed her, but she paid no attention as she ran to the control panel on the other side of the room.

"Loose wolf! Get it!" Keiji shouted in pain as he stood, but it was too late.

Ryooshi made it to the panel and pressed a red button. The doors to all the cages swung open. She pressed another button and the main entry door opened. She turned to see all the wolves run from their cages and toward the door. She attempted to run after them but the leash around her neck choked her.

"Gotcha, ya damn mutt!" one of the Wolf Hunters snarled behind her, yanking her back.

"Ryooshi" Unaru called, and made a move to run over and help her.

"Go!" Ryooshi called, struggling against the man on her leash. "Find my friends! Find the silver wolf with the scar on his chest! Head west! Find Tsume!"

Unaru nodded and ran to the doors, but the man on Ryooshi's leash reaching for the panel and hit the button to shut them. The doors started closing and men were running after the wolves that wouldn't make it out the doors. Unaru ran at top speed in her wolf form and barely got her tail through the doors before they closed. Ryooshi sighed in relief but it was short lived when she was yanked back, making her give a yelp.

"You're more trouble than you were when we first brought you here!" Keiji snarled and she attempted to bite him again, leaping toward him but the man on her leach held her back. "Get her in the back room with that half-breed. See if he can't sooth our little huntress."

Ryooshi snarled and tried again to jump at him but the man holding her leash started dragging her with difficultly toward the back room he'd tried to get her in before. He stood and thought for a moment then ordered, "Wait!"

The man on Ryooshi's leash stopped and turned to his platoon leader as he walked back to them and grinned, smugly down at Ryooshi.

"Take her back to her cell and beat her until she realizes how good she has it here," he ordered, not taking his eyes from Ryooshi. "Three meals a day, a good night's sleep. Where else can you get that?"

"I can get better food than that slop you give us!" Ryooshi snarled. "And 'good night's sleep' my ass! You know how many nightmares I've had of what I've done?!"

"So don't sleep," Keiji taunted then looked at the man on her leash and jerked his head toward her cell as he ordered, "Do it!"

"You'll see!" Ryooshi snarled. "Once Tsume and the others get here, you're gonna wish you'd never been born!"

"They won't come for you," Keiji laughed.

"Wanna bet, you hairless son of a bitch?!" Ryooshi snarled. "Flat-toothed jack ass! Standing trained monkey!"

"Shut up, mutt!" the man struggling with her strained and threw her into her cell. She gave a yelp of pain as she smacked against the wall, but stood as steadily as she could as the Wolf Hunter shut the cell door behind him after walking, metal baton in hand.

"Bad idea to lock yourself in here with a ravenous beast!" Ryooshi snarled, lowly.

"I said shut up!" the man snarled back.

He stepped close to hit Ryooshi square in the jaw with the baton. She gave a yelp and smacked into the bars that divided hers and the now empty cell next to her. She tried standing again but only got kicked in the side and smacked with the baton to the opposite side of the cell.

You can take this, Ryooshi, she assured herself through the rattling of her head. You can take what they dish out. You have before. This will be no different.

She tried standing again, but the ruthless Hunter grabbed her tail and pulled on it to drag her toward him, making her yelp and whine in pain. She tried to dig her paws into the ground to stop herself, but it was no use.

Having enough of her tail being pulled she turned and bit down on his armed hand. He cried out and punched her with his other hand to get her off. Ryooshi fell to the floor again and yelped with every kick he gave her to her stomach.

Think of Tsume, she told herself. He's coming for you, even thought you don't want him to, you know he is. He and the other are coming. Just hold out a little while longer. Find him Unaru. Find him.

"Always playing the martyr," Keiji called, tauntingly through the bars. She hadn't realized the man had stopped kicking her until she saw him standing off to the side. "Can't you just do as you're told?"

"If I did that," she panted, "then I wouldn't be a wolf. I wouldn't even be a mongrel dog. I'd be lower than that."

"What makes you so special?" Keiji wondered, almost sincerely.

"It's not me," Ryooshi breathed, starting to lose consciousness from the pain she felt everywhere, "it's my pack. They make me special."

"You don't have a pack," Keiji scoffed.

"Yes I do," Ryooshi argued as everything went dark. "Yes…I…do."

A/N: YAY! Ryooshi found her spine again! lol! i know, you're all thinking i'm horrible because i beat her up. i'm sorry Ryooshi. *pets* oh, i couldn't resist Unaru. she came out awesome too. lol. Unaru is Japanese for Growl by the way. reviews?