-The Commander gulped, "What experiments?"-

I blinked up at him. (He's joking, right?) I felt my jaw open slightly at that revelation, and I felt myself freeze in fear that I was sure wasn't there anymore. (Crap!)

The Commander saw my slightly shocked face and thought that I looked cute. As soon as he thought that, he mentally shook his head. (That's crazy! I don't think this female is cute). The Commander thought vehemently. The Commander was so lost in his thoughts that he missed the looks that the female was sending him, but he caught the sigh that fell from her mouth.

I was looking at the Commander in disbelief, after my shock had worn off, and I had discovered that the Commander was lost in thought. You couldn't see it in his face, but if you've known him for as long as I have, then you'd know to look into his eyes. 'The eyes are windows to the soul' after all. The Commander's eyes were swirling in shock, disbelief, anger, and a slight softness that I have not known the Commander to show. I couldn't get my thoughts around the confusion that had settled in me, so I did the next best thing – I sighed. I sighed to relieve myself of the confusion that I was feeling, and pushed those thoughts to the back of my mind, and focus more on the task at hand.

"What's got you sighing like a love – struck girl, soldier?" The Commander's voice wafted over my senses like ice water, and I snapped back as if he had.

"Nothing that you should concern yourself . . . . Sir," I hastily replied back. I bit back the snarky retort and I knew that the Commander was just itching to assault me back, verbally at least.

"Nothing? Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure . . . . Sir."

"Then you can finish answering my question from before. 'What experiments' ", The Commander was adamant on the subject. I couldn't deny him, but I knew that I had to.

"My apologies, sir, but I cannot say anything more at this time. I have already said too much as is, and I do not want to jeopardize my mission all because you are curious." I sighed when I saw that he was about to argue his defense, but I cut him off from saying something more. "No, sir, I'm not being disrespectful to you, but these are the King's orders. I know that I've made you curious, but it really is not my place to tell you if you don't already know".

The Commander huffed in annoyance that the soldier had denied him in answering his questions, even if on the King's order's.

I could feel the anger and annoyance that radiated off him in waves, the anger at being denied in his eyes, and the scowl on his face made me want to drop down and beg for his forgiveness. (He made us do this in training because he said that it shows that you were truly in repent, or something like that). I know that no one, besides the King and his guards, could deny him an answer. I, a-now-demoted-soldier, have done just that, and I suddenly wanted to take it back because I've seen when the Commander gets angry and I've known what he does to punish his subordinates who had made him very angry, and let me tell you, of the ones that had never got away with more than a few broken bones, but what really did you in was the mental assault that, almost, made you insane by the end of it. It was that bad. Made the Joker from Batman appear tame and sane.

"Is that so?" The Commander said in an extremely slow and torturous way.

"Yes, Sir." No hesitation. Hesitation meant pain. I was already in pain, and I didn't need anymore.

The Commander was enjoying the torturous feeling that radiated off the soldier in question, and he relished in her rebelling nature that he knew was still there. A strong nature like that is always a nice change of pace, and since she demoted herself (even if it's in name only), she has returned to her old regiment, which means that she is back in my tender care and services.

"Are you going to talk to the Hospital, and get them to release me?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because I thought it would be more fun to leave you here to be tortured by the Hospital Staff who, by the way, hate female soldiers the most, and do their up most best to make sure your stay here is as unbearable as possible." The Commander was trying to make her break. The look on her face was of fear and disbelief at what he had said, and a few seconds later her face showed strength in her resolve to NOT break. It's a good thing that he's on leave at the moment.

"Fine, but it's not going to take me long to heal from a minor injury like this . . . . Sir," I glared at him while still strapped to the gurney.

"And why is that?" The Commander questioned again.

"Still can't tell you, sir, so stop asking, and even if I could, I wouldn't, because you are being very inconsiderate to me at the moment."

"Inconsiderate? How so?" The Commander cocks his head to the side as he questions the female.

"By disbelieving the King's order, and by persisting this by making me the guilty one, so that I would answer your questions to relieve myself of said 'guilt' ". I said with as much conviction as possible, even though I almost died with the glare that he was shooting me. Before he could reply, a pair of nurses, one male and one female, entered the room. They both had the look of surprise on their faces, but went about checking me out – vital wise. I watched them closely as they rounded the room, giving the Commander a wide berth, and came up to me. They both stopped at the foot of my gurney, and stared before they bowed to me. I widened my eyes at them, then looked at the Commander who, also, had his eyes widened at the display that these two nurses were showing. I turned back to them as they came over to the left side of the gurney (the Commander was on the right) and began checking my vitals.

The male nurse was checking my stats on the computer screen, writing them down on the clipboard that he was carrying, and brought out a light and shown it in my eyes. All normal reactions, until he switched the color of the light, and I quickly squeezed my eyes shut and I tried to keep them shut. I wiggled my head out of his grip many times, so the male nurse asked for help from the female nurse who tried to hold me down, but I continued to wiggle. They finally let me go, and I sighed in relief before I tensed again as they asked the Commander for his assistance in holding me down. I couldn't see or hear his response, but I felt his hands on my neck and the top of my head. I continued to wiggle my body, but with my head held in one place I was beginning to tire out, so I stopped, and focused my remaining strength to my eyes. I heard the Commander chuckle when he saw my body relax, and the tightening of my fists. I heard a body come closer and I tried to jerk my head away, but I couldn't, even when I felt an extra pair of hands peel my eye lids back and force me to see the light. I saw the male with the flashlight of a different color. I looked away to the right, up, down, back to the left, but he anticipated my next movement and missed and he got frustrated.

The Commander took pity on the male nurse, and when she shifted her eyes back towards him, he said, "So, like what you see?" When her eyes shifted towards him, her gaze automatically puts her eyesight on his abdominal, but to anyone else with a perverted mind it wasn't the abs that she was looking at. He chuckled when she turned bright red and looked away right into the light. She went rigid as soon as her eyes met the light, and the female nurse let go, and at a nod to the Commander, he let go too, but he was staring at the female soldier on the gurney. The light made certain features appear that had remained hidden to the naked eye; like the red color made her eyes stay the same color of brown but a pair of black bull horns appear on her head, the green color made her eyes go all black and the top half of her face had green-ish scales on it, the yellow color made her brown eyes become an amber color and made her face morph into a dog-like snout with brown-ish wolf-like ears appear on her head, and when you mixed the colors you got the aspects of the other different animals such as a leopard, tiger, jackal, coyote, snakes, wolves, birds, etc….

It was fascinating to watch the different forms appear and even more fascinating to watch her continue to fight the light. Her fingers were twitching and he saw her body start to shake and shudder when a different color was shown. The Commander couldn't describe the color that he could compare it to, kind of looked like a pale green, but it wasn't because pale green in human terms made her become lizard-like. The shaking stopped, and the shuddering was subsided, but the changes were evident. Her body lengthened a few inches, her body mass expanded in muscle and dropped in what fat was shown, her hair lengthened in a few more inches enough to actually be considered tomboy, her finger and toe nails grew longer and pointier, but the only feature that truly changed were her ears which became more wolf – like and the wolf – like tail to match coming out of her back end (base of the tail bone of the spine). The light switched back to the regular setting, and the features stayed, and they switched it off and recorded the results. She appeared dazed, but when they snapped their fingers near her wolf ears, which twitched in response, she snapped back to reality. She blinked a couple of times, and tried to stretch, but she couldn't and her ears flipped backwards in annoyance, then she focused on one hand and yanked. The padded cuff snapped like it was made of cloth, and when she inspected the cuff she went back to pulling at the other ones. The Commander was pulled aside by the nurses when they switched the light off and made her come back to reality, and now the Commander watched as she ripped the cuffs off and stand up. It looked like she was on autopilot, she didn't acknowledge anyone's presence as she went through the motions of a new body change. The nurses recorded the change and what she was doing, but they didn't question her at all, and he was just itching to when the female soldier turned around and gazed at the two nurses who were ignoring her, and he watched as she growled a beast's growl. The growl was heard by the nurses who looked up, then dropped to the floor in a kneeling position (knight style). The soldier swished her tail, and turned her gaze to the Commander, but he just stood there and glare at her.

The Commander and the beast heard a whispered voice of one of the nurses say, "Dominance Fight", and the beast raised her tail up in an arc, her ears flat back across her head, and growled a challenge at the man who did not kneel in respect. The Commander glared as he accepted the challenge of dominance, and he moved into position to fight the female.

"No! Stop!" Came a voice outside the door.

Both challengers snapped their heads to the door when they heard that voice.

"Leader, help us! They're moving us to the containment ward." I know that voice. I've heard it before. Nurse! The Nurse was calling for help. 'Containment ward'? I gasped. That ward is only used for brainwashing females back into service of the male hierarchy, and that would ruin all of her hard work of 'saving' these females and training them. She made her choice.

"Where is the containment ward?" I growled out to the now – standing nurses. The nurses made her a map and she grabbed her clothes and rushed out the door toward the containment ward.

When the soldier rushed out, without finishing the challenge, it made the Commander the automatic winner, but he didn't know that, and neither did the nurses know. The only one who knew is the soldier, but she was too busy to tell him that before she rushed away.

The Commander was clearly confused at the predicament of this situation. The nurses packed up their bags and prepared to leave when the Commander halted them.

"Wait. Tell me, what just happened?"

"We can't tell you, sir, for we do not know. We were just told to do that with the light and to record the results," the male nurse replied. They left when the Commander released them.

The Commander was confused, and he didn't like to be confused. He wanted to know, so he followed after the soldier in hopes that now she would explain the situation, and besides that, he still needed to give the soldier the message from the King. (Oh, Joy).