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Author Notes: Whee! Chapter five! Wow, I got this one out quicker than I expected. If anyone has any requests for anything in the fic, jus email me at acidcrazed@aol.com and I'll try to get it done. ^_^ Special thanks to CP for putting this on her site! Hey, CP, did you get those pictures I emailed to you? Email me!

Chapter Five: Babies and Funerals! The Battle Continues!

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I found the Tiger of the Wind in a strange place, nearly twenty four hours after Amelia found Zelgadiss. The morning after we found out what was happening to Filia, and the implications that arose from such diabolical torture, and I expected the teams to be mourning for the lost comrads. Most were.

Well, Tiger was mourning. Though, I always thought that he considered himself too tough to go to our 'church'.

But there he was, sitting on the ground (well, he is a wolf), head bowed. I didn't hear him talking, whispering, or even crying.

The church was quite packed. Alot of people were there. Alot were crying.

I walked up to the blue lupine quietly, and whispered a simple query, "Are you all right?"

Tiger looked up, and stared at me. His eyes were fairly bloodshot, as if he hadn't gotten enough sleep. Not surprising there. But who was he mourning for? I didn't think that he cared about Hare at all, as much as those two were seen fighting.

He looked back down to the ground. I frowned, and was about ready to back away and leave him to mourn, when I heard his gruff voice.

"It's not fair."

I frowned deeper. I looked at the wolf in concern, "I know."

"None of them deserved this."

I sighed low. "Tiger-san.."

He looked up, but didn't look at me. "Genki and Mocchi keep crying. The rest of us don't even know what to say to them anymore."

I frowned. So, two of the Searchers were depressed. Not unusual, for the situation.

I was about to say something else, when Jen walked up behind me. "D-chan. Selenity called a meeting."

I put my hand on what passed for Tigers' shoulder, a quick form of consolation, before getting up and walking out of the church.

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Not all the leaders were at the meeting this time. Genki was not there. Holly was in his place. For some reason, this troubled me. What also surprised me was that Tenchi Masaki had someone sitting next to him that shouldn't have been at the meeting. Washuu.

I blinked twice at the pink-haired woman/girl for a moment, curious, before the meeting started.

Selenity was at the podium. "Washuu, of Tenchi's group, has come up with a plan to rescue our victimized allies."

Now, that got me to pay attention. I looked, along with everyone else, at Washuu. She stood up in her seat, and didn't seem bothered by all the attention. Quite the contrary; She seemed to bask in it.

"As some of you know, I no longer have access to my lab. But that hasn't stopped me from using my superior knowlage to our advantage." I sweatdropped slightly at her ego. "I've found a way to create synthetic organs, and if I can get to the three being used, I can probably patch them up so we can bring them back here. However, this requires everyone's help. I'll need a distraction, so that Lasarius's army won't be able to get to me before I can get our own out of there."

There was a small murmer then, as leaders spoke with each other, even as Washuu sat back down in her seat.

All became quiet again, as Knuckles Echidna raised a hand to speak, "Queen, we have a slight problem. Many of ours won't be able to fight, and two of mine are already unable to fight, atleast for a short time."

I blinked. Two? Well, Mighty is down for the moment, but who else?

Cloud Strife got to that question before I did, and Knuckles blushed slightly in response. That confused me for the moment, before he explained.

"Julie's pregnant."

Dead silence. For a full ten seconds, there was dead silence. Knuckles slinked down in his chair.

Jen's laughter broke the silence, which got a few curious glances, and quite a number of sweatdrops. "Knux, aren't you just a couple of years early? Most Guardians have their first kid at twenty!" She grinned slyly.

Knuckles glared at her from his slinked position. "Shut up."

Selenity sweatdropped as well, but spoke again, "Is there anything else that we should all know about, from any team?"

Strangely, Lina Inverse rose a hand. She grinned, seemingly humored by a private thought, "Martina's pregnant, too." Another small moment of silence, but I noticed a few people stareing at Knuckles and Lina, either grinning knowingly, or sweatdropping.

"All right, then." Selenity sighed. "Rescue mission tonight at sunset. Same as the last mission, but new groups will be formed. I'll keep you all posted."

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"What the heck is this, a baby boom?" Was my first comment upon leaving the meeting, heading towards our makeshift bar/pub, alongside Lina Inverse herself.

Lina chuckled, grinning, "Who knows. With everything going on, I guess some people just don't feel secure about long lives."

I stared at her from the corners of my eyes, "You're not pregnant too, are ya?"

She facefaulted, "Dear Ciepheed, no!" She did laugh, though.

I then grinned, "Martina is having Zangulas's kid, right?"

She sweatdropped, "I hope so. It would be nothing short of frightning if she wasn't."

At that, our conversation halted, as we arrived at the pub. Walking in, I spotted my brother at the pool table, various others either playing along (it looked like a four-player game, two per team) or watching the game.

My brother, at twenty three years old, is fairly tall (five-foot-five), well-built, and rather handsome. Pale-milky skin (for some reason, no one in our familly except for my sister and father has been able to tan. Sunburn, yes. Tan, no.), black hair in a military-style cut, dark blue eyes, but no facial hair.

Oddly, my parents named him Leroy. I don't know what my parents were thinking.

Lina and I sat at a table close to the pool match, Lina immediently ordering a beer. I never did aquire a taste for alcohol, so ordered nothing. I was only there in the first place to keep Lina company, and perhaps find some company for myself.

I watched for a few minutes, my brother's team (teamed up with Alec, of the 'Dark Angel' team) seemed to be winning. More stripes than solids in the holes. He was playing against Rattrap (who I never even knew played pool. He always seemed more like a poker type.) who was teamed up with Diver.

Two humans against two Transformers in a game of pool. Interesting.

Lina drank a dozen beers before the match was over. She had to be escorted out, she was so drunk. My brother sat in her seat as soon as she was gone.

"How you doing, Donna?"

I smiled at him. "Fairly well, considering."

"It's not your fault, you know." Why does everyone keep saying that? "It's that bastard Lasarius's fault. You know that, right?"

I nodded, letting out a sigh, "I know, big brother, I know. It's just.." I paused, and sighed again. "At eighteen years old, I'm fighting for my life on a foreign planet for the universe. And yet, it seems so normal. A few years ago, I figured that, at this age, I would be driving to the mall and going out to clubs. Not..here."

He smiled wryly, chuckling, patting at my shoulder. "I know. It seems strange to me, too."

There was a pause for a moment, neither of us saying anything.

"I asked Jennifer to marry me, you know." Is what broke the silence, from my brother.

Now, before any strange thoughts come from this, my brother's girlfriend of several years is not the same Jennifer that's my best friend. They just happen to have the same name. His Jennifer (we call my best friend by 'Jen', and his girlfriend by 'Jennifer') was his age.

I smiled, and I know I was practically gushing, "Oh, Lee, that's wonderfull! Yay! I'm finally gonna have a sister-in-law!"

He sweatdropped. "Finally?"

I grinned, "Hey, I've been waiting for years for you to ask her. It's bout time."

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Six groups of a dozen each. Same as the last time, just different people amongst the different teams. I was assigned leadership of one team, but a different one. I lead a field-rescue team, this time.

Field rescue is just as it sounds. Jen, in attempted humor, had said to me right after finding who was to go and where, "Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to rescue the innocent whatevers in the labor fields. Choose to accept it? As if we have a choice!"

I chuckled in response.

I looked over then, hearing a loud angry yell, to another assembled team.

..Oh, dear god. Happosai was on a team. And, as usual, harrassing a woman.

I fell over laughing, as that 'woman' wound up being Sailor StarFighter. Wrong person to mess with.

Oooh, look! A new Happosai-shaped crater in the ground!

My entire team sweatdropped at what was going on.

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Now, as several different things that were happening all at once have to be told, I'll tell you what I heard from other teams when I was able to talk with them.

It was a surprising battle, even from my point in it. Technically, my team and my backup team had the 'easiest' job. Field rescue is just that, and it didn't require any building infiltration. Heck, we didn't even think we would come accross any Ex-Eleven's. We just had to get some of the innocents out of the labor fields and barracks, and then retreat along with everyone else, with only a hope that other teams got their mission objectives cleared.

We got a dozen various innocents out, before we were attacked in retalliation. Usually, we'd be able to get a good fifty out before any real threat would show up. But a real threat did show up, in quite large numbers. And not only Ex-Elevens, though there were a couple dozen of those there.

I recognized the creatures attacking us before I heard Legolas's cry: <"Yrch!">

I already knew what the Elvish word ment. I called back, "Worse! Urak-hai!"

On the 'Lord of the Rings' world, Middle-Earth, Orcs (Yrch in Elvish toung) were of the evil Sauron's creation. Elves, tortured and mutilated into darkness, from what I know. Urak-hai were like super-Orcs, a mix of Orc and Goblin. A pain in the ass, really, they were.

I called into a MF-THC (multi-frequency, other teams can hear), "On your guard, everyone! Urak-hai! Take their heads off!" Hey, it is the easiest way to kill those things.

I wondered if guns/lasers were even effective against those things, already using my own to defend myself, when I heard a quite giddy yell.

<"Yee-HAH!"> I saw before I heard Quickstrike literelly jump over my head, landing a couple of feet infront of me, and shoot the inbuilt lasers in his cobra-head arm.

Hey, lasers work, when aimed at the right place. Quickstrike shot at their heads. Good enough.

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Lina Inverse wanted to blow up the entire building. The Dra-Matta had found Filia, in much the same state as Hare.

But her team was not the rescue team. Washuu was in another team.

"Kuso.." Was all she can think to say at the time, distracted by the sight of her friend in such pain. Filia was unconscious, however.

"Lina!!" "Look out!!" Lina quickly whirled at the duel calls. She had been so distracted, she hadn't even noticed a soldier sneaking up on her. A red lion had pounced at the soldier, keeping the would-be attacker down, even as a young spikey-haired boy elbowed the man hard on the forhead, knocking the soldier out..

Lina nodded, "Thanks, Nanaki. Daisuke." She thanked then both, and then called into the MF-THC, <"Washuu! Room 347-B!">

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Max Guevara kicked at a steel door, expecting the metal to buckle under her Ex-Five power.

Instead, all that had to show of her actions was a foot-sized dent. She blinked once, and then settled for stareing angrilly at the door.

"TORPEDO!" An attack call came from besides her, a ball of lightning raceing at the door. She barely had time to dodge, even with her feline-like reflexes. The attack came through, that thought going through her mind the moment the door buckled under the combined weight of her 'foot assault' (for lack of better term) and the Torpedo Attack.

The Ex-Five, even as she was getting back on her feet, nodded to the attack-thrower. "Thanks, Pixie."

Pixie, clad in her usual attire (which, admittingly, wasn't much), nodded in return. She then ran past Max, into the room they had just gotten entry into.

Max followed then, and noticed a third following behind. Probably a member of her team, or her backup team.

Ex-Five-Four-Five-Two then gaped at the room.

It was actually a rather small room, but a laboratory of some king, but the appearance of it. A round room (as opposed to the usual square room), curved desks lining the walls, bottle holders (think the kinds that bottles of wine are held in, only smaller) lining the walls. Each holdster held a small, liquid-filled vial. The desks had computers, microscopes, and delicate-seeming machinery atop.

"What is this place?" A rather thick voice came from behind her. Max looked back briefly, and then blinked once. At first, didn't remember the anthro falcon, and then recalled the pilot-adorned bird as part of Fox McCloud's team. On her backup team for this mission, she recalled. Falco, she thought his name was.

His question went unanswered for a moment. She knew what this place was. It was far too much like the one back at Manticore, save for a few certain details she would prefer not to remember.

She had to make sure, though.

She ran more than walked the foot or so to the nearest wall, grabbing at a vial, looking upon the label so precariously placed upon it.

Confusion for a brief second, at the simple two words, a name, upon the label in black ink: 'Armadillo, Mighty'.

She shrieked angrilly then, and threw the vial at the wall, startling her two companions. It broke upon impact, the clear liquid streaming on the wall.

"Max? What's wrong?" Pixie got to the question first, even though Falco mirrored the same thoughts on his face.

Max practically growled her answer. "Genetics lab." A genetics lab. Where they stored the sperm, eggs; enhanced or not. The same as in Manticore, where she herself was born into a life of fighting, where she managed to escape as a child of nine, despite capture ten years later, recaptured into a life of slavery and brainwashing, forced to watch her 'brother', Ben, live on only as an organ donar, unable to fight back in fear after months of torture, where that Madam Director wouldn't even let her shave her f**king legs!!

Her thoughts swirled like that for a few moments, a Monster and a falcon watching with concern and no small amount of caution.

"Help me set explosions." Her voice nearly went unheard.

"Huh?" Was Falco's ingenious reply.

Max repeated her command again.

Neither objected.

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<"Washuu! Room 347-B!">

Washuu blinked twice at the call, already trying to rescue and save the life of a nine year old catgirl.

She looked to Chichiri, who was there to help her, worry in her eyes.

The blue-haired monk frowned, "Keep going, no da. We'll save them all. We just have to go one at a time, no da."

Washuu nodded, breathing deeply once, before continuing the task, trying to ignore the rumbling of the building.

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To say that Hotohori was disturbed would be a vast understatement. "What are these creatures?!" Was his query, even as he slashed at a Urak-hai with his sword. Blood got onto his clothes. He faught the urge to throw up.

"Mars Flame SNIPER!" A female's cry rang out, the blast burning an Ex-Eleven to death.

<"On your guard, everyone! Urak-hai! Take their heads off!"> My voice rang through the MF-THC, Hotohori looking in my direction briefly, thirty feet away.

"You heard 'er! Lekka Shinnen!" Tasuki cried out, flames erupting from his fan, aimed at the heads of several Urak-hai.

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I spotted Sailor StarMaker carrying Kitty out of the building. The catgirl was unconscious, but seemed to be in considerable pain, wrapped in a thin sheet.

"Defensive, everyone! Now!" I called out, those under my command following my order right there and then. Amelia raywinged herself over to StarMaker and Kitty, placeing a defensive shield up as soon as she got the chance.

"Amelia! Get StarMaker and Kitty out of here!" I called into the MF-THC, and I saw her nod, even as the three retreated.

I turned at the sound of a crash, spotting a familliar catwoman kick down the wooden door of a barrack. Running over, avoiding blasts and attacks by various enemies, I looked in.

"All right, people, move, move, move!" Aisha Clanclan shrieked, trying to get the beaten, starved, captive innocents out of the barrack.

It occured to me then that throughout the chaos that this rescue mission has turned into, both my team and my backup team had commandlessly merged into one large duel-mission team. And it seemed to be working in our favor.

As soon as the last of the captives were let out, and various of our own immediently went to protecting them. Aisha ran out, shrieking a battle cry of: <"DIE, already, damnit!!">

I chuckled wryly, running into the newely freed barrack.

There were dead there, those that probably went in their sleep. I was disturbed then, a small part of my mind telling me that this is what my own grandparents escaped from nearly fifty five years ago.

I heard whimpering. Someone was still alive here.

I ran over to where I thought the whimpering came from, finding a Mobian Echidna, brown fur and black hair, nearly starved to death. He looked too weak to move.

He seemed terribly familliar. I didn't dwell on it, however, and attempted to take the grown echidna in my arms. I was startled to find him very light.

I noticed then, that his left leg was just..gone. Nothing below the knee, and by the wound at the kneecap, it didn't seem to have been like that for long.

I ran out of the barrack then, ducking a gunshot from an Ex-Eleven, running over to the closest of my allies that could take the echidna to safety.

Vector the crocodile, another of the planet Mobius, was the first I saw.

"Vec! Here, take this guy to safety, will ya!?" I yelled over the sounds of battle.

He looked over, and took the injured, starved victim from my arms. He gaped then, stareing at who he now held. "Constable Remington?!"

I gaped for a minute, then, too. That was the Constable!? "Get him out of here, Vec!"

The crocodile nodded, and ran off. Oddly, Sailor Chibichibi backed him up.

I went back to fighting.

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"BLIZZARD!" Tiger of the Wind called out, his icy attack freezing Ex-Eleven's in place. He then looked ahead, and spotted three Urak-hai in his way. "TORNADO!"

Twin lightning bolts, aimed at the heads of the Urak-hai, hit home on two of them. The third was distorted for a moment, and that gave the blue lupine monster time to run past.

Turning sharply, he headed into a room, and, for the first time since the rabbit's capture, saw Hare.

He actually paused in place, Washuu there and already patching up the rabbit, others in the room setting up defensive at the door against any enemies who would show up.

Tiger stared at the rabbit, mouth open in shock, eyes wide, for a moment. "Holy crap.." Was his first spoken words.

Hare was not unconscious. But he did seem to be in quite a bit of pain. Tiger slowely padded over, face showing the shock and horror he felt, stareing at Hare from about a foot away.

The rabbit looked right at him, and smiled. He then closed his eyes, expression turning to pain. A short second later, the expression faded to one of content.

Tiger looked to Washuu. Washuu blinked once, looking at the rabbit's face. "..Hare?"

He didn't respond.

"HARE!!"

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While fighting, I could hear what was being said over the MF-THC. I didn't let it distract me, keeping my ears on the information being put out by my allies, and my eyes on the battle infront of me. It seemed to work in my favor.

<"Are Kitty and Felicia all right?!"> I heard Washuu practically shriek. The way she spoke and breathed told me that she was running, probably out. Hare was the last she was suposto save.

<"Kitty is fine, we just got her to the hospital!"> Sailor StarMaker replied.

<"We're on our way back to base with Filia. She's alive, if that's what your asking."> Nanaki (AKA RedXIII) answered.

<"We're heading out. Retreat! We got what we came for!"> Washuu called out. My team already went into defensive retreat formation.

I called into the MF-THC, curious about something despite my mind occupied with staying alive, "Is Hare all right, Washuu?"

I heard Washuu let out a worried-sounding sigh. That tipped me off right there. "Washuu?! Is he all right?!"

<"They must've cut off the life support when they figured out what we were doing!"> Washuu's voice called again, and I was faintly aware what she ment. The battle infront of me gained too much of my attention, and I didn't realise quite what she was saying at the time. We were halfway with our retreat formation. We were heading off, trying to keep the enemy at bay.

Tiger's voice suddenly went through. <"Hare's.."> He paused. <"Hare's dead!">

I paused. So did many others. The enemy pushed forward.

I heard several enraged shrieks and battle cries, probably in response to the death of one of our own, as we pushed forward on them. I looked over to my team. Everyone looked pissed off.

Tiger's voice went through again, and he seemed to be whispering. <"He didn't turn into a lost disc.."> And then, I heard him roar in anger.

I grieved for a moment, before feeling enraged myself. I shot at the enemy, not noticing in my rage that I took the heads off of not only Urak-hai, but Ex-Eleven's as well.

I don't think any of us noticed the carnage that ensued after we heard of Hare's death. Not untill we returned back to Knothole2.

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The Searchers were grieving. So were the three teams of Chosen Children. As well were the 'Pokemon' team.

The five teams had become close during the war. Probably because they came from such similer worlds. Or perhaps it was because they were all still technically children. Either way, they became as close as a familly.

And one perished, died in Washuu's hands. She was fairly upset. Couldn't blame her.

Once we got back to Knothole2, I told Selenity right then what had happened.

Neo Queen Selenity ordered a day of mourning. No one objected.

Three hours after getting back, and I came accross the Fellowship of the Ring. They were talking amongst themselves, and I stood, unnoticed by the group, listening to their words.

"One falls, hundreds mourn. I've never seen such widespread companionship before." Frodo began, his hobbit face looking slightly troubled.

"Not so, Frodo. We mourned at the fall of Gandalf the Grey, and as well for Boromir. Both would have smiled upon such a close army." Aragorn replied, smiling sadly.

"There were Orcs at the battle. Queen Selenity had told us that there would not be any of Sauron's creations here." Gimli pointed out.

"Perhaps our intent watcher has some comment on that." Legolas spoke, and looked to me. "Maiden Donna?"

I sweatdropped, embarressed. "How long have you noticed me there, Legolas?"

He smiled slightly, "Since your feet brought you within ten feet."

Aragorn looked at me, as well, "Maiden Donna, do you have any inclination as to what we came accross today?"

I frowned, "The only thing I can think of, is that Lasarius must have made an alliance with Sauron. He made several alliences with enemies of others, so it wouldn't be unusual." I sweatdropped slightly. "I just didn't think it would happen."

"Hey, D-Chan!"

We all looked over at the call, curious. Jen had called my name, and was running over.

My first thought was to be concerned, "Jen? Did something happen?"

She shook her head, but grabbed my hands and pulled, "Yer sis has done somethin that you just have to see."

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Sharon Kunz, my sister younger by four years, is my new favorite person. As soon as she had gotten back, it seemed, she had gotten streight to work.

She has made a memorial for Hare.

As soon as I saw the array of flowers around a grey-slate tombstone, and the inscription on the stone, tears began to cascade.

Sharon gave me a sad smile, "It was the least I could do for him."

Jen put a hand on my shoulder, "We havn't buried the body yet. The funeral's tonight."

I nodded, still looking at all the flowers. That's when I noticed the wooden Hare sculpture amidst the flowers.

I can't believe she kept that. I made that when I was 15, because Hare was one of my favorite characters.

I stares at the tombstone, and looked to my sister. "How did you get one made so fast?"

She pointed to a little Digimon pushing more flowers. "Digmon."

Armadimon looked up for a moment at the call of his other name, smiled briefly, and went back to pushing flowers with his snout. I heard a loud bawl, and all three of us looked over. Holly was on her knees, crying into her hands. Poor girl. The loss of one of her closest friends hit her hard.

Sharon frowned, and walked over to the other girl, kneeled down, and hugged her. Holly cried into my sister's embrace.

I looked back to the tombstone then, reading the inscribed words once again, before bowing my head in a moment of silence.

'Life's thread too soon done; We will remember, though you are gone.'

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I visited the hospital after that. My origonal intent was to see how Kitty and Filia were doing. The last I saw of either of them, they both seemed to be in horrible pain.

I nearly bumped into Espio the chameleon as he walked out of Mighty's room.

I blinked once at the strange look on his face, and my curiosity got the better of me. "Espy? What's wrong?"

He looked at me, blinked, a rather disturbing blank expression on his face. "Mighty's in shock. I think I am, too. Excuse me." With that, he walked off.

Okay. Weird. I peaked into the armadillo's room, only to see him lying on his bed. His face had the same blank look that Espio had. I walked over, concerned and only slightly cautioned. Hey, his name was 'Mighty' for a reason. "Mighty? Are you okay?"

He was silent for a minute, and didn't look to me. "I'm gonna kill 'em."

I blinked twice. Oookaaay.. "Kill who, Mighty?"

"Genereux."

...Okay. This was starting to frighten me, now. "..She hurt you, too, Mighty?" I was only told that she hurt Zelgadiss and Filia.

He then looked to me, and some of his normal expression returned. He looked upset. "Well, not exactly." He rubbed the back of his head, and he bit his lower lip.

He was trying to hide something from me. That much I could figure out. "Mighty, you're a horribly lier. What happened?"

He looked around a bit, obviously hesitent to say what he wanted to say. "That dragon lady..Filia, I think. She's pregnant, from the lab.."

He ment that the enemy got her impregnated. I already knew that from what Zelgadiss told me. "I know, Mighty. It's disturbing, I know." But why was he this upset? He didn't even know Filia.

He frowned, eyes going around the room again. "Well, Doc Mizuno found..Um.."

"What? What did Doctor Mizuno fi--" I cut myself of.

Oh, no. No way.

"Mighty, what did they do to you when you were captured?!"

The armadillo threw his free hand in the air, practically blowing up, "I honastly don't remember, okay?! All I remember is a hell load of needles everywhere and doctor stuff, and alot of pain and that they took out my friggin kidney!"

Obviously. All that went without question. "Mighty-san, what did Mizuno-sama tell you?!"

"That my DNA is in Filia's unborn kid!" He blurted out. After realising what he said, his hands went to his mouth, as if to take it back.

I stopped, and stared at him. No wonder both he and Espy were in shock.

I didn't know what to say to him. What does one say in such a situation? "Excuse me." Is what I settled for, heading out the door.

This day just couldn't get any worse.

----------------------------------------------------

Remember I said that the day couldn't get any worse?

I was wrong.

Very wrong.

I stared at Makoto Kino. "No."

Her posture dropped, and she stared back, "Well, why not?"

I sweatdropped. "I know we have had a lack of warriors lately. But, come on! My parents!? You have to be kidding me!"

She didn't seem to see what was wrong with it. "You didn't know how to fight at the start, either. They just have to learn!"

I stared at her, "They're fourty five years old!"

She still didn't seem to see what was wrong. "So? Legolas-san is two-thousand, nine hundred and fourty nine years old!"

"He's an elf! My parents are human! There's a difference!" I practically yelled at her. "I don't want my parents on the battlefield!"

Makoto's expression softened. "I know that you don't want to see them hurt, but we don't have a choice. We need everyone we can get."

"Are you asking Jen's dad to fight, too?" I asked, eyes narrowing.

"Of course not. He's not fit enough."

"Neither are my parents! They're fat!"

"A little exercise can cure that, Donna-san!"

I stared at her, an annoyed expression on my face. "I'm not going to win this argument, am I?"

The queen of Jupiter grinned. "Nope."

I grumbled in response. "If either of them get so much as a pinprick in any battle, I'm holding you responsible."

--------------------------------------------

Everyone showed up to the funeral. ..Well, almost everyone. A few certain people were not allowed to come (Lord Raptor, for example. I shudder to think what would happen if he was allowed at a funeral.), and a few others didn't show up at all.

Ranma Saotome, amongst others, wasn't there, but not for a reason one would expect. True, the leader of the 'Ranma 1/2' team didn't know most everyone, but he refused to go anywhere that the catpeople were at. Poor guy, terrified of cats.

Anyway, I guess our army really is close-knit. I never really thought about it before, but when you see and talk and fight along side the same people all the time, you get close to them. It doesn't matter if it's a dozen or a thousand. We all know each other now, and we all care. The loss of one of our own hit us all.

Suddenly, I felt a great deal more mortal.

Most of the people at the funeral didn't cry, even as Neo Queen Selenity herself made a short, but nice, speech about Hare. Most of the people didn't even know Hare, and only showed up for respect. Some saluted.

Holly, Genki, and the remaining 'Searchers'/'Anti-Moo Rebels' cried. Alot. Except for Tiger, but I noticed that he shed a couple of silent tears. He still wanted to remain 'tough', even at such a sad time.

This was the first funeral for a warrior that we've had so far this war. I sincerely hoped it would be the last.

Yet, I somehow knew that it would not be.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

It was the day after the funeral. I had gotten into rather deep thought, and began aimlessly wandering around. I found myself in the park.

It was strangely empty, considering it was the middle of the afternoon. I wasn't alone, though.

Washuu was sitting on a bench, a green-haired infant in her arms. I recognized the child instantly as baby Val, the child Filia has been raising for the past three months, since the child hatched. I guess Washuu was the first choice to babysit for the baby, since she's one of the few who's ever actually had children of their own.

Yes, hatched. The kid is actually the last of the ancient dragons, and somehow was already able to take human form, if only that of a human infant.

I walked over, and sat at the bench next to the pink-haired scientist. "Hey." Was my form of greeting.

She looked up from feeding Val with a bottle, and smiled slightly. "Hello, Donna-san."

I frowned slightly, "Are you okay, Washuu?"

She blinked once. "Except for having to care for Val, I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be?"

I was slightly disturbed by her rather innocent

answer. "Well..With the battle, and what happened with Hare.." Hey, the rabbit did die in her arms, from what I was told.

She let out a sigh, shifting the bottle so it was more comfortable for both her and Val. "Death happens. I've lived for a very long time, Donna-san. I've seen death before." She paused for a moment. "Besides, that's how life is."

I let out a wry chuckle, "Shit happens, life sucks, get a helmet."

She stared at me for a moment, a bit of a surprised expression on her face. She then let out a bit of laughter, and it must have been contageous, as the child in her arms giggled right along with her. "Where did you hear that saying from?"

I chuckled, sweatdropping slightly. "Television show. Don't remember which show, though.." I let out a chuckle, and then a sigh. "Are you sure you're all right, Washuu-chan?"

She sighed in response. "To be honest, not as much as I thought I would be." She then looked down at the child in her arms, frowning. "Hare died in my arms, Donna-san. He smiled before he died. He knew he was dying and he smiled. It bothered me. I mean, I knew Hare, I spoke with him on several occasions on plans and missions. Genki-tachi is taking it harder than any of us, though."

I nodded at that. "It truly is a dark time that befalls us now, huh?"

She nodded, then looked to me. "Have you visited the hospital, yet?"

I looked at said building, not far from the park. "Yeah. Mighty's going nuts."

Washuu had a strange expression on her face, I think. "Can you blame him? He's barely sixteen, still basically immature, and he's an unwilling father. I spoke to him before. He doesn't remember much of what happened to him, and it's effecting him even further. Filia's even worse. She does remember what happened to her."

I frowned, and got up from the bench. Washuu looked at me curiously.

I smiled the best I could to her, trying to appear less worried and frightened than I actually felt. "I'm going to take a nap. I need some time to rest."

She nodded, looking back down to the child in her arms, a small smile on her face. "Feel better, then, Donna-san."

I walked off, and didn't answer. I didn't think I would feel better.

And, you know what? I didn't.

---------------------------------------------------

Author Notes: Well, that's it for chapter five! I'll try to get chapter six out soon! ^_^

Author Notes: Whee! Chapter Six! I'll try to get these cranked out as quickly as possible, but with school and all, it's rather difficult. Once every two weeks or so. But, if there's a vacation (such as this week), I can prolly get it done by the end of the week. As always, special thanks to CP for putting this on her still wonderfull site! Please email and/or review! Chapter Six: More warriors around! The party's just started! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It's been three days since the funeral, four since the Great Rescue, as it's now called. I was in a meeting, along with all the other leaders. The mourning period seems to still be going strong, Genki Sakura still being replaced by Holly. Not that her spirits seemed much higher, but I guess someone had to be here from the 'Searchers' group.

It was a rather long meeting, but not for the usual drawn-out speech that Selenity usually gives. No, this time, it was due to an argument.

Yup. An argument.

"Why were fell Orcs at the battle?" Was what Aragorn, representative/leader of the 'Fellowship of the Ring'. He seemed fairly pissed off that his own enemies were amongst those that we had to face. Can't blame him, really.

Max Geuvara, representative/leader of the 'Dark Angel' team, "Does it really matter? All we need to know is that we have to fight them!"

"We cannot simply fight these Orcs! The Urak-Hai are far more powerfull than normal Orcs. They have already caused one of our own to fall!" Aragorn nearly yelled back.

"What the hell makes these 'Urak-Hai' more powerfull?!" Max yelled.

"They're a hybrid fusion of Orc and Goblin, and are far harder to kill. To underestimate then, Lady Max, would be a grave mistake indeed." Aragorn answered rather calmly, although 'Lady Max' was said rather seethingly.

I sighed at the argument. "Has anyone spoken to the rescued?" I spoke up, trying to change the argument to something more usefull.

Silence for a minute, as several faces, Max and Aragorn amongst them, looked to me.

I blinked twice at the attention. "What? I'm serious." I heard Jen chuckle slightly from my side.

"Actually, Red spoke to a few of them." Cloud Strife interrupted the slight silence. "Nothing pretty. Pretty nasty stuff, and not only from the Orc creatures. Men, too, have done some pretty ugly stuff." Did he like using the word 'pretty', or something?

I frowned at that. I could only imagine what other leaders were thinking, having to fight our own species in this war.

"Red said something, too, about a species called the 'Ranso', I think, that are being hunted by Lasarius's soldiers. I've personally never heard of them, but I thought one of you might." Cloud Strife commented again.

Jen and I looked to each other, eyes wideneing with understanding.

"The Ronso?" Jen asked, stareing at Cloud.

He blinked, then looked thoughtfull for a second. "Yeah, I think so."

I sighed, and slumped a bit. "Aw, great. Looks like another world jus got involved in this mess." ----------------------------------------------------------------

I had visited the hospital again. I was doing that alot lately, visiting both those that I knew and the newely-rescued various whom I didn't. Strangely, we managed to rescue quite a number of children. Lasarius's troops usually killed the children.

I saw a few Ronso this time. I don't know why I didn't notice them before. Probably just wasn't paying attention to specific species.

The Ronso, blue anthro cat(?)-people of the Final Fantasy X world.

This ment, of course, that eventually, the team of the Final Fantasy X world would probably get involved. A Ronso is on their team, of course.

Hey, the Final Fantasy VII group got involved. Why not them?

I sighed a bit at that thought. All this was turning into such a mess. And we needed more soldiers so badly, my very own parents were soon to be fighters!

I let these thoughts stir for a moment, sitting at a chair and stareing out of a third-floor hallway window. I got a good view of Knothole2 from here.

Screams penetrated the relative silence suddenly, causing me to literelly fall backwards in my chair with a yelp. I got up quickly, though, as the screams didn't stop.

The voice was not recognizeable. I saw Doctor Mizuno run by, accompanied by several nurses, down the hall. Finding both strange, I followed.

They ran into a nearby room. As soon as the door opened, the volume of the screams intensified. Peaking in, I saw that three nurses were already there, trying to hold down a struggling brown-furred amputee victim. I gaped at immedient recognization.

He didn't seem to be really awake. More like in the middle of a nightmare that he couldn't get out of, thrashing for all he was worth. The screams soon turned to pleas, and I found myself too stunned to do more than watch in morbid curiosity.

"Nooo! Get off of me! Please!!"

I was in complete and utter shock. This guy was always so calm. To see him like..like this..It was frightening.

I heard people run up behind me, unable to take my eyes off the scene before me. One nurse was readying a syringe. Probably a tranquilizer of some kind.

"Holy crap.." I heard a familliar voice from behind me. Espio the Chameleon, of Knuckle the Echidna's 'Chaotix' group.

"Constable Remington..?" I heard a second voice ask, sounding as shocked as I felt. King Charmy Bee, I recalled, technically a member of the 'Chaotix' as well.

Both, as well as one other, were behind me and watching the entire spectacle. They were probably origonally in the Hospital to visit Mighty.

The nurse stuck the syringe into the brown Echidna's arm. It took a few seconds for it to take effect, but the end of it was still disturbing.

"Nooo.." Was the tailend cry, even as he lost conscious.

"..Okay, what the HELL was THAT?!" I heard Vector the Crocodile yell.

Doctor Mizuno walked up, and tried to shoo us out. "Allright, everyone. I need you all to leave.Except you, Knuckles-san. I need to speak to you."

Ah, Knuckles was here, too? I must have really been in shock not to notice.

Knuckles walked infront of me, and I noticed the completely stunned expression on his face.

The rest of us were forced to leave. That surprised me, as I'm usually first to know everything. But I had no idea what was wrong with the Constable.

It frightened me. ----------------------------------------------------------

I was passing by our makeshift bar/pub when things started getting weird. Considering where I was, I really should have seen it coming. I just wasn't expecting it to come from my best friend.

"WOOOO! WOOOO! GOOD ALARM! GOOD ALARM! MEGATRON HAS A CUTE BUTT! WOOOOO! DINOBOT'S IS CUTER, THOUGH!"

I stopped in my tracks, and sweatdropped. I then peaked into the pub..

..And stared in complete and utter shock for the second time that day.

Jen was ontop of one of the tables, impersonating an alarm, it seemed. Huh. ..Heey. Wait a minute. She isn't old enough to drink.

..And then I spotted the plate, half-eaten salsa atop, resting on a different table.

....Ooooh, shit. ShitshitshitshitSHIT.

"What the hell is she doing?" I heard a confused voice from behind me. I turned, finding Zangulus, Gourry (both a bit scratched. Probably were dueling again.) and Cait Sith. All three were stareing at the dancing and yelling teenager.

"WITCHY HAT!!" I looked back to Jen, only to see her jump off of the table and run towards us. Before any of us could react, she grabbed Zangulus's hat, and put it on her head.

Zangulus tried to grab his hat back, yelling a bit angrilly. "Hey! Give that back!"

"WITCHYHATWITCHYHAT!" She completely ignored us. She ran back to the table, tried to climb atop, stumbled, and then succeeded. "SPOONS ATE MY SOUL!"

She then proceeded to dance in a circle atop the amazingly sturdy table. "I AM THE LORD OF THE UNDERPANTS!" She paused, and, for a moment, I thought that the salsa had worn off and that she would come down.

Instead, she blinked once. "Heeeeey. Waait. I'm not wearing any." I gagged a bit, and fellover. How bad off WAS she?!

I heard giggling from the android cat behind me. "Heehee. She's drunk off her arse!"

I sighed. "Worse. She's been eating salsa."

"Ah." Gourry answered. "That's why you keep that stuff from her."

"Yup." I replied, sighing again.

Zangulus growled a bit. "She took my hat. Out of all the stupid.."

Jen cackled, sounding a LOT like Naga. "SHAKE YO' BOO-TAY!" She then proceeded to wag her hips back and forth, quite comically. Cait Sith's cat half fell off of the mog half, laughing histerically. I swear, if he wasn't an android, he woulda died of laughter right there.

I sighed, and sat at a chair. Might as well be there to drag her away when it all wears off.

Jen evil-laughed again. "FEEL THE WRATH OF THE COW GOD!!" --------------------------------------------------------

I think that i'm being..replaced.

Selenity called another meeting. This surprised me, at first, what with everything that's been happening the past week. It seems that war never stops, not even for mourning.

As soon as I entered the meeting room, I was shocked to see someone in my seat. Doubleshocked at who it was.

"Ima?!" I used the Hebrew term without thinking. My mother was in my seat.

My mother.

"Oh, hello, Donna." My mother greeted me, nonchalent. "The queen called me here, too." She paused for a moment, stareing at my blank expression. "..Oh, am I in your seat?"

I nodded dumbly. She blushed, slightly embaressed, before moving into the seat next to mine. A seat that wasn't even here the last time.

What is this? Is my mom the new representative of the familly?!

I sat down in my seat. Jen gave my mother a weird look, when she arrived, before taking her own seat. She scooted over a bit, whispering to me, "What's your mom doing here?"

I shrugged in reply, before a general 'Sssh!' filtered around the room. Selenity took the podium.

Instead of the usual hour-long pep talk, she got right to the point. "A shipment of prisoners are headed to the labor camp above us, carrying members vital to our side." A mini hologram list appeared infront of each of us. "I've constructed three teams to rescue them. This should be an easy mission, everyone. There should not be any Ex-Elevens or Orcs at this shipment."

She paused a moment, before looking in my general direction. "The summoner Yuna and her guardians are being held there, along with another summoner with the same name as Miss Donna. They are the rescue targets."

I gagged momentarilly. Ah, the Final Fantasy X group. And, unexpectically, "You're kidding me, right? Lady Dona? She's a snob!" I blurted out.

My mother looked at me. "That's not very nice, Donna." She said that a little too loudly, I think. Some laughter went around the room at my comment and at my chastisement.

I gaped at my mother.

Oh, god; Even Jen was chuckling slightly.

Selenity didn't look disturbed, however. "Nonetheless, they must be rescued. Dismissed." ------------------------------------------------------------

I was sitting at a desk an hour later, writing in my diary. I wrote everything within the little pink book, a picture of a Care Bear on the cover. I have no idea why a Care Bear is on the front. Probably because it was cute. I personally hate the little things, but, eh.

'I seriously hope it never comes to asking a bunch of super-happy cloud-dwelling creatures for help. I will die along with Xelloss if I would ever meet them. Besides the point, what the heck would they DO? Spout sugery sweetness untill our enemies would die of shock overload?'

I chuckled slightly at my own entry. I always try to start a bit humerous. Perhaps whoever reads it someday will think me a better person.

'Hare's dead. We couldn't save him. He wont come back, since he didn't turn into a Lost Disc. I don't know what we're going to do about Genki-tachi. Poor Genki..'

'My sister kept the Hare statue for his memorial. I hadn't seen the thing in years. I only made it when I was younger because Hare was my favorite character. ..Well, okay, not my FAVORITE character. But my favorite Monster Rancher/Farm character. I always seemed to have a thing for either the smart ones, the tricksters, or the ones I wished to be. Hare, Filia, Duo, Sailor Mercury, Lexington, Migh'

That's when it hit me. In the middle of writing his name.

Hare. Filia. Mighty. All three were attacked and hurt SPECIFICALLY.

I had a couple of flashbacks then.

Hare, pounced by a dozen Ex-Eleven's, gone before I could save him, only to see him a day later missing half of his insides.

Filia, pregnant, suffering from a nervous breakdown from her torture.

Mighty, an unwilling father, still a child in many ways, unable to remember but still effected by his own torture.

They were targeted. They were 'favorites'. Lasarius's soldiers were targetting my favorites.

I never finished that particular diary entry. I ran out of there, pen atop my still open book, Mighty's name cut off at the 'h'. ---------------------------------------------------------------------

All who were my ‘favorites’ were banned from the next few missions. Quite a number of people were pissed off.

“What do you mean that I can’t go on the next mission?!” Duo Maxwell shrieked.

“Hey, come on! We’re only trying to look out for your safety.” Jen tried to defend me. “Lasarius’s troops seem to be going after Donna-chan’s favs. The last thing we need is a repeat of Hare’s demise.”

Duo grumbled a bit. I do believe I caught a few swear words in there.

I sighed. “At least with some of them it won’t matter. Sasami sure wont be going on any missions anytime soon. And I doubt the same with Original Cindy, though I wouldn’t be surprised.”

Jen chuckled slightly, both of us now walking off to prepare for the mission we were to go on in only an hour. “I still can’t believe that Cindy is your favorite.”

I sweatdropped. “Hey, just because she has..erm..’questionable preferences’..”

Jen nearly facefaulted, I could tell. “Are you kidding me? For the love of..She’s..she’s..”

I glared a bit, but not angrily. “Don’t even say it, Jay.”

She did anyway. “She’s GAY!”

I sweatdropped. “Lesbian. The correct term is ‘lesbian’.”

She grumbled something under her breath. “Listen, can we not talk about this now? I’m going to get in battle gear.”

I blinked. “We have battle gear?”

She nodded. “Yeah. Recently added. Selenity figured that we actually needed protection in battle. Sometimes, that woman surprises me with what she forgets.” ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I really should have seen this coming. Seriously. I should have figured that the queen of the moon would have an obsession with crescent moon designs.

I just didn't figure that she would put them all over our armor. Heck, I never figured that the armor would look like this.

"What the heck is this stuff? Magic Knight rejects?" I couldn't help but ask. It really looked like Magic Knight Rayearth armor; Dressy ceramonial-like armor, mainly one color, with golden or silver crescent moons all over. And this was only for the female fighters!

"..I wonder what the men have to wear." I wondered aloud.

At that moment, Koushiro Izumi walked by, fitted in his own armor, grumbling along the way towards the exit.

I was stunned, and couldn't help but stare. He stared back, for a moment.

"Not. One. Word." Each word was punctuated. I could see why.

After he left, I sweatdropped slightly. "Thank goodness I'm a female.."

Dress armor is defenitally better than chainmail. Indeed. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Well, Selenity was right. There were neither Orcs nor Ex-Elevens aboard the prison ship holding a pair of Summoners and their guardians captive. The ship, for some weird reason, kept on reminding me of an enlarged 'Delta Flyer' from StarTrek Voyager. I realised then that I watched that show far, far too much.

Er, anyway, the ship was actually rather small and underguarded for a prisoner-carrying transport vessle. Either Lasarius had no idea of the importance of these particular people, or it was a trap.

We all carried newely modified (greater distance, and actually matches the armor) MF-THC's. It wound up being standard. That, and the weird battle gear that we all had to wear. I decided neither to complain or comment. Though, I am thankfull that I don't have to wear a skirt that many of the varients have.

I was one of the first to find the holding cell. Apparently, they were all being held in one huge cell. Upon entering, first thing I noticed was that something was wrong.

Horribly wrong.

Summoner Dona was crying. Full out sobbing. She never cries, and rarely shows any sort of sentimentic emotions (save for making out, but I doubt that even counts). She is a summoner, after all; a fighter destined to die, and knowing it.

Second off, I noticed that three were missing. Dona's guardian, and two of the ones vital to our cause. The two vital ones, I get. Favorites. But Dona's guardian? ..He was just annoying. Odd.

I called into the MF-THC: "People, three aren't in the holding cell. A male Ronso, a black mage woman, and a buff adult man. Keep an eye out for 'em."

Jen called back first, nearly immediently. "D-Chan, I jus found a dead female Ronso. Not who we're looking for, but thought you should know."

My call into the MF-THC got the attention of the cell's occupants. Wakka was immediently on defense. He glared at me, despite being chained and defenseless. "Who're you?!"

I held up my hands in what I hoped was a peacefull guesture, signalling a couple who came along with me to work on unchaining them. "Calm down. I'm here to get you guys out of here. I'm from Queen Selenity's Army. Do any of you know where the rest of your allies are?"

I was startled then, when Summoner Dona wailed; "Bartholemeu's dead! Dead! They killed him, they killed him.." Her words trailed into sobs.

Looking at the others from the FFX world, I noticed sad, knowing looks upon their faces.

I feared the worst for a few seconds, before Rikku spoke up. "They took Lulu and Kimahri away a while ago. Said something about 'punishing favorites'."

Well, crap.

"Kats alive!" I nearly fell over at the unexpected equivilent of a curse.

"Razor? What's up? Did you find anyone?"

Tidus looked at me, the only one of the group without a confused expression on their faces. "You have a communicator?" I only nodded to him in response, then went back to listening.

"Holy crud..I, I found a..damn..a disembowled body here. He looks like he was..drawn and quartered."

I cursed silently, "Fur?"

"Nope. But he matches the 'buff human' picture. Atleast what's left of him. Crud.."

I looked to my nearest ally, who seemed a little pale in the face. Seemed she heard what was going on over the com, too. "Shampoo, can you get them out of here? I'm going to go search."

She nodded, and proceeded to try and get the prisoners out of the chains.

I left the room, still armed and in contact with everyone else. I figured any extra pair of eyes searching would be for the best. -----------------------------------------------------

I ran down an empty corridor, neither ally nor enemy in sight. I was headed to where Razor said the dead body was (I assumed it was Bartholemeu, Dona's guardian.), running past vacent rooms.

Soft crying filled the air.

I stopped in my tracks at the sound, listening intently for a moment. Yup, was defenitally soft crying.

Walking towards the room where I assumed the crying was coming from (damn echos), I found it to be an unlocked room. Needless to say, I walked in, against better judgement.

I found myself in what seemed to be private quarters for a crew member of the ship. One of Lasarius's soldiers. Seemed whoever decorated this room really liked the color blue. Lots of blue. And not normal blue; Baby blue. Gya. Pastel color.

The crying snapped me out of the pastel-induced thoughts, and I walked over to the side of the bed, a hidden little corner near the wall.

A little girl sat there, chained to the wall by a collar around her neck. She couldn't have been older than five, with golden blonde hair in twin pigtails, and I wondered how she managed to sit up with such a thick heavy collar on. She was wearing, not surprisingly, blue rags. It barely covered her.

"..Hello?"

She practically jumped at my call, backing into the wall, her wailing stopping at once, stareing at me with wide, frightened, cerulean blue eyes.

I held up my hands, "Sssh..Sssh. It's okay. I'm here to help." I bent down, and grasped at the chain. She whimpered, and looked like she was about to wail. I couldn't find a way to open the collar.

I touched the earpiece on my MF-THC and spoke into it. "Hey, i'm in one of the private quarters here. I found a little girl, chained up. I can't get the chains off. Someone get here, please."

Mousse called through a second later. "I'm on my way, Donna-sama. Oh, and can someone keep a look out for Ryouga? The moron got lost again." I sweatdropped at that.

Busy with calming the obviously distraught child down, I hardly noticed the 'Master of Hidden Weapons' enter a few minutes later. He simply walked over, took out a pair of giant metal scizzors from his oversized sleeve, clipped the chain, and put it away.

He walked out of the room a minute later with only, "I'm off searching for pig-boy." As an explanation.

I picked up the child, noticing that the collar was heavier than she was, and headed to the door. I asked her name in a whisper. She didn't answer, either from fright or shyness. ----------------------------------------------------

I called into my MF-THC, carrying the suddenly quiet child through a few empty corridors. "I have a little girl here, but she wont tell me her name. Has anyone found any other prisoners?"

"Nadda, D-Chan. Lulu and Kimahri are still missing, too." Jen, obviously.

"I hacked into a console, here. Seems those two prisoners were transferred down to the main labor camp. Doesn't have a reason why, though." Jim Hawking's voice came through.

"Holy crud!"

I couldn't help but sweatdrop at the curse's equivilent. "Razor?"

"Guys, avoid sector ten! Geeze..There's these weird mutated dogs running around!" Mutated dogs?

..Oh, crap. "Uh, problem. I'm in sector eleven. I haveta go through ten to get to everywhere else." I looked around for a possible exit, noticing something metal on the floor. Bending slightly, but not too much as to bother the child in my arms, I picked up an MF-THC. A human model. "I just found an abandoned MF-THC, too."

"..Ryouga, that idiot.." Mousse silently cursed.

"Donna-sama, stay where you are. We'll try to break through the three fucking mutations on our own." Tasuki called. Gah, three? Why was that familliar?

"..They aren't those three legendary Pokemon dog things, are they?"

"What? No!" I can tell that Razor fell over at my question. Hey, I couldn't help it!

"..Gah, three? ..Wolf-like? Uh..D-Chan?" Jen's tone of voice got me worried immediently. She was trying to ask me if I was thinking what SHE was thinking, without alerting anyone else to any danger. Sorta hard to do in this sorta situation, but nonetheless.

"..J-Chan, I have no idea what you're trying to say."

"..Desertstorm..Granithide..Remember?" I blinked.

..Oh. Those three mutated wolves that Jen made up when all this was still fantasy. Well..crap.

"...What are you two talking about, no da?" Chichiri, unless someone else picked up the 'no da' habit.

"Nevermind. Lets just try and get everyone out, okay?"

The girl in my arms started to cry. I bounced her a bit, a tip I learned from babysitting. "Maa, maa. Calm down. We'll be okay."

She sniffled, but didn't wail. "I wan' my daddy.."

"D-Chan! The Three are headed to sector eleven!" Awww, crap!

I ran to the closest room, another of the private quarters, and huddled behind a wall. The child was now being held in my right arm, and my left hand, almost with a conscious of it's own, went to the 'Crescent Moon Laser Rifle' at my side, hinged on my armor.

I heard footfalls. ..No, pawfalls. Alot of pawfalls. Heck, I could hear them growling.

The little girl stopped sniffling, and started to shiver. I frowned. Atleast she was trying to remain hidden.

I whispered into my MF-THC, "Guys, help would be nice.."

A loud growl nearly caused me to jump in surprise. They were getting a little to close to the room for comfort.

I whispered as low as possible to the girl. "If you need to, you can hold me tight."

She gripped onto my neck. I nearly gagged, but managed to whisper low again. "Gak..Not so tight, honey." She released her grip a bit, but still held. Strong kid.

"Sorry.." She whispered very slowly, and I heard her voice then for the first real time.

The voice sounded familliar. Soft and shy, yet sort of squeaky and high-pitched. I smiled lightly. It sounded alot like my voice did when I was a little girl.

At the time, I didn't think it was anything other than that.

I heard another growl, and then voices.

"She's close. I can smell 'er." I was startled. They can speak.

..Well, aint that nice.

"LEKKA SHINNEN!" Tasuki's voice echoed around, accompanied by some growls and a loud yelp of pain. I jumped up, and the little girl let out a frightened cry from the loud noise. I left the room, holding onto the girl as protectivly as I could. I met chaos.

Tasuki, of the Suzaku Seishi, was fighting all three of them. Alone. His tessen's fire works great against the plant-mutated one (Vinearms, if memory serves correctly), but didn't do much against the stone-mutation and the sand-mutation. Granithide and Desertstorm, respectfully.

Still holding onto the little girl, I used my left hand to take my rifle, and fire where I thought I could.

Hey, laser fire works great on Desertstorm. Cool. Didn't do crap against Granithide, though.

We lucked out, however. Granithide decided to run off, down the sectors. His injured 'brothers' followed behind.

Tasuki breathed hard, a little scratched. "What the hell were those things?"

I frowned, "I'll explain later. Let's just get out of here."

What disturbed me then was that the child I held did not seem all that effected by the violence. On the contrary, she smiled after we won. -------------------------------------------------------

First thing I did when I returned to Knothole2 was bringing the little girl to the hospital. For some reason, I was really concerned for the girl, more than I should have been.

We have a serious shortage of medics, I noted. Only about twenty or so actual doctors, one of which was only a healer who could use the ability once a day. Plenty of nurses, though.

Doctor Mizuno, also known as Sailor Mercury, was being called on at the moment. She's the most higly regarded. So, I wound up looking for a different doctor who wasn't as busy.

"Dr. Tofu!" I called over to the doctor from the 'Ranma 1/2' world. Truthfully, I know nearly nothing about this guy. Only that he's nice to patients, a good doctor, and that he goes nuts when Kasumi is around.

He didn't seem too busy, with only one patient being treated for what I assumed was a broken leg. A cast was being set.

Dr. Tofu looked over at my call, and smiled. "Hello, Donna-san. Who's this pretty little one?"

The little girl in my arms covered her eyes shyly, giggling lightly at the compliment.

I smiled lightly, "I found her being kept prisoner in one of Lasarius's soldiers' private quarters." I punctuated those last two words.

Tofu frowned, and took the girl from my arms. "I'll give her a full lookover. You can wait, or come back in an hour or so."

I nodded. "Thanks, Doctor." He only smiled in return.

I headed off through the hospital, headed to my usual quiet window corner. -----------------------------------------------------------

Life is plenty of strange occurances. This just happened to be one of them.

"GYAA! LEMME OUTTA HERE!!"

I sweatdropped heavilly at Rikuo Aulbath of the Darkstalkers. He had to have three nurses hold him down. He was thrashing around and trying to get free from their hold.

I knew he hated hospitals. But..damn. He must reeeeeeally hate hospitals.

I walked over to a sweatdropping Jyou Kido. He was wearing a doctor outfit, and I guessed he was 'drafted' to the medical field. Shortage of medical staff. "Jyou-san? What happened to Rikuo?"

He looked over to me, and chuckled nervously. "Gunshot wound to the leg. We got the bullet out while he was unconscious, but we've been trying to bandage his leg since he woke up."

Rikuo started to curse rather loudly. I shook my head a bit, chuckling.

"Donna-san!!"

...That wasn't Rikuo. Jyou and I both whirled to the door at my call, and I was slightly startled to see Dr. Mizuno. I thought she was busy.

"Mizuno-sama?" I asked a bit tentivly.

"Donna-san, it's Remington-san! Come quickly!"

Blinking in confusion, I followed. I had no idea what I was in for. -------------------------------------------------------------

Dr. Mizuno and I ran into the room Remington was being treated in, only to see the brown echidna unconscious, a syringe bring extracted from his arm by a nurse. Seemed we ran in on the tailend of the situation.

Dr. Mizuno's face showed worry, and even a bit of anger, glaring at the nurses. "I thought I told you not to use any more sedatives on him!"

A meek nurse frowned and tried to defend the nurses, "We didn't have a choice, Mizuno-sama. He was getting terribly violent."

Dr. Mizuno frowned, letting out a sigh. "Where's Knuckles-san?"

"Here."

I looked back to the doorway, along with everyone else, to see Knuckles the echidna standing there.

He looked around, a firm expression on his face. "What happened?" He looked to Remington. "Nightmares again?"

I sweatdropped slightly at being left out. "Um..Can someone tell me what exactly is going on, and why I was called in here?"

It became silent for a moment, as Dr. Mizuno and Knuckles both stared at me.

Dr. Mizuno sighed. "Donna-san, I wanted you to see how Remington-san has been acting lately."

I nodded. "I've already seen. And yet, no one has told me exactly what the heck has been going on." I was a bit pissed off. I hate being left out.

Knuckles glared at Dr. Mizuno. "You didn't tell her?"

I looked between the two of them, back and forth. "Tell me what, exactly?"

Amazingly enough, we were all acting very calm. Had it been any of the others, I'm sure that it would have turned into a shouting match from the start.

Dr. Mizuno took a clippad with a report, and handed it to me. "Take a look for yourself, Donna-san."

Blinking twice, I looked down at the medical report. It took me a few minutes to read it, mostly because I read it twice just to make sure I wasn't hallucinating.

Angrilly, I placed the clippad on a nearby table.

"Excuse me." Was all I said, heading back out the door. No one stopped me. -----------------------------------------------------------------

I really don't know what came over me after that.

Walking up to the healer of the Suzaku Seishi, Mitsukake, with anger written all over my face, I'm pretty sure I startled just about everyone in the room. Mostly other Suzaku Seishi, but a few others as well.

"Mitsukake-san! Why didn't you heal Remington-san!?" I demanded, rather harshly.

Everyone looked a bit stunned. I'm hardly ever angry. I've been told that I actually am too sympathetic at times.

Mitsukake was no different. "Donna-sama." He was one of the few that treated me like royalty. "Wounds like he had suffered is not the same as normal injuries."

"You couldn't heal internal wounds?!"

"I can only heal once a day, Donna-sama."

"What kind of healer are you?!"

I could tell that he was hurt by that last remark. I really didn't mean to be that way.

I frowned then, and sighed. "Mitsukake-san, i'm sorry. I-I didn't mean to. I'm just very upset."

He nodded, but I could still tell that I had wounded him deeply.

"Yare yare, Donna-san. You care too much."

I swear to any god that exists, I nearly jumped out of my own skin. So did everyone else, I think, since the owner of that voice had not only snuck up behind me, but appeared from thin air.

I turned around after jumping slightly, stareing with wide eyes. "Xelloss?!"

He smiled, his eyes ever closed. "Ah, so you've heard of me as well, Donna-san."

I gaped. "..What the hell are you doing here?!"

He still smiled. I really hate when he smiles. You don't spend years watching Slayers and a year role playing as Filia without learning a few things. "My mistress ordered me to help."

..Waaait. "..Beastmaster Zelas Metallium ordered you, her priest and general, to help us out in a war that barely concerns you."

"Hai."

...Ohh, that wasn't good. The simple implications that the Mazoku were now involved were more than enough to make my head spin.

"Listen, Xell, I can't deal with you right now. Go make yourself known to Selenity-sama, ne? I have stuff to think about."

"Whatever you say, Donna-san." Why the heck was he being so nice to me?

I decided not to think about him at the moment. I walked out. I had too much to do.

That, and I seriously didn't want to see Xelloss. I don't care how nice he is, he's still evil.

..Dear god, I'm starting to sound like Amelia. ----------------------------------------------------------------

I walked into Neo Queen Selenity's quarters about half an hour later, at the moment that Xelloss poofed away. No smoke, no big bang. Just..vanished. One minute he was there, the next he wasn't. Rather unspectacular, but whatever works.

The Queen sighed immediently after he vanished, sitting back on a chair. For a moment, she looked like a young woman, not like a queen.

"Selenity-sama?"

She blinked at my call, and stood back up, trying to maintain a regal posture again. "Yes, Donna-san?"

I frowned, "It's--"

"If it's about Xelloss, I already know." Wow. She interrupted me, and didn't refer to Xelloss with a respectfull surname. She must really be having a bad day.

I shook my head, "No, Selenity-sama. It's about the Constable Remington. The brown echidna, from Mobius."

She nodded, and sat down on the chair again, streight and regally. Now, she looked like a queen. "I heard that he was hurt rather badly. Leg amputated. Ami-san is already contacting the Floating Island and the Echidna Security Team about his current state."

I looked at her a bit oddly. I could tell that she wasn't even told about Remington's full 'current state'. "Selenity-sama, I don't think Mizuno-sama told you everything that happened to him."

She blinked. "She didn't?"

I frowned, unsure how to say it for a moment.

She caught onto the silence. "Donna-san? What happened to him?"

"Selenity-sama.." I paused. "Selenity-sama, he was sodomized."

She blanched immediently, gaping like a fish out of water for a moment. I couldn't blame her, really. "That's..terrible."

I nodded. "And it concerns me for more than one reason, Selenity-sama. He's scarred psychologically. I've already seen him suffering nightmares." I paused for a moment, noticing how the Queen was unable to say anything for the moment. "..He has a girlfriend, Selenity-sama. I fear that it might cause some instabilities in their relationship."

She nodded, still gaping.

"Selenity-sama, I have to go. I have to do a few other things."

She nodded, still shocked. I frowned, and walked out. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I headed back to the hospital after that. With the chaos surrounding Xelloss's arrival and the implications on what happened to Remington, I completely forgot about the little girl that I rescued, who's name I still didn't even know.

"Dr. Tofu?" I called into the 'daycare' room, where I assumed he would take a five year old girl.

"Ah, Donna-san. Yes, over here." He came into the room from a playhouse half his size. I prefer to not know how he got in there.

The little girl came out of the playhouse after, smiling brightly, dressed in a little skirt and tanktop. Her hair was, as the same I found her, in twin ponytails.

Dr. Tofu shrugged at my stare on the little girl. "She insisted on wearing blue."

"Hn." I replied. I smiled down at the girl then, kneeling down. "How are you, sweetie? Feeling better?"

She nodded, giggling, "Mr. Fishy played house with me."

Dr. Tofu sweatdropped. "That's 'Tofu'. Not 'Fishy'."

She looked thoughtfull for a moment, before shrugging nonchantly. "Mr. Fishy sounds better."

I laughed lightly, finding the conversation rather humerous.

Looking down to the little girl again, "Sweetheart, with everything that's been going on, I havn't been able to get your name. Can you tell me what your name is?"

She smiled brightly, "Well, my daddy and sisters calls me 'Bubbles', but my name is really Lilly."

I blinked once. Bubbles?

Hopefully, my thoughts on that are wrong. "Bubbles? What's your daddy's name?"

She smiled again. "Daddy's name is Professor Utonium."

Yet more weirdness for my day. "Ah..You're the Bubbles? Powerpuff Girls Bubbles?"

She nodded, not seeing my point. "Uh-huh."

"The same with the powers?"

"Uh-huh."

"..Doesn't your dad have an actual name?"

"..Professor Utonium is his name." She seemed confused by my question.

Huh. How weird. Now, not only do I have everything else to deal with; Now I have a small child with super powers.

I stood back up, and looked to Dr. Tofu. "Take care of her for a little while, okay? I need to think about a few things."

He nodded, obviously slightly confused at my different tone towards the child.

Speaking of which, I looked down to the girl. "Lilly, sweetie, I'll be back later, all right?"

She nodded, still smiling. She then looked to Dr. Tofu, "Mr. Fishy, wanna play house some more?"

He sweatdropped again, but nodded, "All right."

I headed to the door, and, despite the strangeness of the situation, I couldn't help but smile. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

My sister did not seem as concerned as I was about the Constable. It may have had to do with the fact that she barely knows the guy, and what she does know is from me. I still never thought that she would be so unsympathetic as to question the situation this much.

"Remington was raped?" I nodded sadly at my sisters' stunned expression, her disbelief sounding rather thoroughly in the query.

She blinked once, the stunned horror fading into confusion. "..But..He's furry."

I wasn't sure what she ment by that. "You're point being, what?"

"..He's the size of a young teen human. What, four feet tall at the most?"

I nodded, still not quite sure where my sis was going with this.

"..You're telling me that a bunch of grown human soldiers raped a mini furry Jamaican person who's barely four feet tall?"

I stared at my sis, sweatdropping slightly. "Mini furry Jamaican? He has dreadlocks and lives on a Floating Island, but he's not Jamaican." I paused for a moment. "Wait, where the hell are you going with all this, Shar?"

"That's gross, Dee. I mean, who would want to rape someone like that?"

I stared at my sis with my own stunned disbelief now. "Sharon! That's mean!"

"I'm serious! It doesn't make any sense to me."

I frowned at my younger sister's complete lack of sympathy. "The guy was hurt horribly, sis. I'm really surprised at you."

She frowned, and I knew she felt bad. Yet, she didn't appologise.

I frowned at her deeper. "I'll see you later, sis. I have to make sure Mercury-sama informed the right people about this situation."

I walked out, without looking back at my own sister. Sometimes, she can really surprise me. --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I went to speak to Jen after that. I figured I would get to Sailor Mercury/Ami Mizuno after I filled my own best friend in.

She gaped at me after hearing what happened to Remington. "..Geeze..That's rough."

I nodded, silently glad that atleast my best friend cared. "I know. Poor Remy. No one deserves that."

"Why do you suppose they did..that, to him?"

I blinked at my friend. Was she on the same line of thought as my sister? "Say what?"

"I mean, there were countless others there. Everyone else we rescued didn't have anything like that happen to them."

I blinked once. "..You know, I didn't even think of it like that."

"Jen-sama! Donna-sama!"

Both of us looked over at the call. I was only a bit startled to see Miaka Yuki run over. "Miaka-san? What's up?"

She looked a bit troubled. "Selenity-jo'o-sama called another meeting. Seems something important came up!"

Jen and I looked at each other. I don't know about her, but my thoughts were a bit mixed up at that point. What the heck else happened?

Jen looked back to Miaka. "Ah, Miaka-san, why isn't Tamahome going to the meeting instead of you?"

Miaka actually sweatdropped. "..Ah..Tamahome is a bit.." She paused a moment. "..preoccupied at the moment."

I blinked. "Preoccupied?"

Miaka sweatdropped further. "..His pet died."

I blinked several more times. Another difference from what I knew in the anime series, I suppose.

I shrugged it off, and looked to Jen. "Well? Should we go now?" -------------------------------------------------------------------------------

About ten minutes after the last few people got in their seats, Selenity took the podium. Usually, she starts as soon as everyone is there. I wondered why she didn't go as normal.

She started with simply, "We have a problem."

Big deal. Gourry could tell everyone the same thing.

"It seems that Lasarius has created a fair of sorts for his soldiers, using captives as the entertainment."

An alarm ringed at the back of my mind.

"Tortures and deaths have become a show for them, right in the labor camp above us." She paused for a moment, allowing the startled and shocked whispers and murmers to run through throughout the various leaders. "He calls it 'Humanity Fair', the celebration of being human."

Jen and I looked to each other in shock. Yes, we recognized this one. It was far too much like it not to have some sort of connection.

I was first to whisper to Jen. "Flesh Fair variation? From the 'A.I.' movie we saw a few years back?"

She nodded, looking grim. "Too much like it."

My mother looked over to us, and I could tell that she heard. She looked rather pale. I guess being a 'new' leader is starting to catch up on her.

I sighed and sat back. "The human mind never ceases to amaze me." I think I said it a bit too loud.

Sonic the Hedgehog looked over to me. "And you're a human." He rather wisely pointed out.

Jen frowned, "Some of you would know about this, but most of you don't. Way back in the medievil times on our world, perhaps even further, the Romans enjoyed similer gruesome stuff. They pitched person against person just to see who would win in a battle to the death. It didn't matter if the two were friends or not; they would be forced to. The people of Rome wanted to see bloodshed. They also brought out starved animals, lions, bears, wolves, and other carnivores, at people that the Romans considered unjust simply because of their religion. Even in other time periods, such as the Salem Witch Trials, where they tortured and killed those that they believed to be witches. Way back then, gore was simply fun and entertaining."

Everyone in the room, along with myself, stared at Jen. I had never heard her be so serious about anything like this before.

"What?! Does everyone like to stare at me today!?" She demanded.

Selenity cleared her throat, "In any case, Jen-san has a very good point. Unfortunitally, it's quite worse than that."

"Enlighten." I said, loudly enough for Selenity to hear.

"A few of our own are being displayed in this."

Another pause, with more murmers and whispers. Cloud Strife was first to ask, "Who?"

Selenity only needed to say two simple names to get an uproar. "Lulu and Kimahri."

Tidus practically jumped out of his seat, "WHAT!?"

Selenity frowned, nodding to Tidus. "I'm sorry." She then looked to Jen and I. "We want to have a rescue mission as soon as possible. For now, I want you, Jen-san, Donna-san, to create the required teams."

Jen blinked. "Us?"

Selenity nodded again. "Bring in the lists by midnight tonight."

I gaped. "By tonight?! That's in..six hours!"

Jen sighed. "All right, Selenity-jo'o-sama. Donna-chan and I will get started right away." ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Author Notes: Well, that's it for chapter six! Next chapter: The Dark Pack and the Brotherhood! Rescue turns to terror! More problems arise, and as the rescue of Lulu and Kimahri gets underway, yet another problem for Knuckles and the Chaotix comes around! Keep reading! ^_^

Author notes: Yay! Chapter seven! FINALLY! ^^; Sorry for taking so long on this one. Schoolwork. 2-10, all pivotal classes, far too much homework. Not even time for a good RP anymore. *sobs* Oh, by the way, on a challenge from my RL sister, during this chapter is one of those POV-Centered-on-a-character part I always ask my readers to ask for (but you never doooo..). It's a Terriermon, from Digimon, one. Even if yer not a Digimon fan, it should be a nice read. ^^; Review! Please! Gaah! I don't even know who's reading this anymore..

Chapter Seven: Intricate Chaos! Too Much At Once!

----------

At the meeting, before we could make our way out of the doorway, Selenity called us back in.

"Donna, Jennifer, Sonic, Knuckles, may I speak to the four of you for a moment?"

Jen and I glanced at each other, as did the respective leaders of the 'Knothole Freedom Fighters' and the 'Choatix'. Never before had Selenity asked any leader to stay behind and talk about something that couldn't be addressed to the collective leaders during the meeting itself.

The four of us sat in a semi-circle, Selenity standing in front of us. "I'm sure that you four all ready know of Constable Remington's current state."

We four shared a saddened glance, then looked back to the Queen.

"As I'm sure that you four are also aware that the Constable was left back on the planet Mobius, upon the Floating Island, to help protect the Island while Knuckles is here."

"Yeah, but then he was captured.." Knuckles stated, trailing off slightly, a thoughtfull expression undertoning the last few words.

Selenity looked sad. Sad and tired. "Planet Mobius has been thoroughly invaded by Lasarius's forces."

I looked over to the Echidna and Hedgehog, expecting either one to react dramatically, either by a faint or by jumping out of their chair. Instead, both looked as if they already knew.

"Yeah, we figured as much when Mobians started being amongst the rescued." Sonic admitted.

Knuckles frowned, "Everything? What about Robotropolis? Knothole?" He paused for a moment. "Our families?"

Selenity sat down at a chair, still faceing us, still frowning. "The humans.." She blinked once, then quickly corrected herself. "Overlanders remain untouched. However, Haven has been destroyed, it's occupants captured. The same with Knothole and the royal familly." She paused. "I'm sorry."

Jen and I shared another knowing, yet troubled, glance. Knuckles' father, grandfather, and greatgrandfathers for seven generations (except for two) lived in Haven. I could scarcely imagine how Sonic and Knuckles must be feeling.

"However, for reasons unknown, Lasarius's forces have not attacked the Robians. They are already on their way here. The echidnas Spectre and Athair have managed to elude capture as well."

Sonic and Knuckles brightened for a brief moment, the hedgehog more than the echidna. Sonic's parents were both Robians (Metal/Roboticized Mobians), and Athair and Spectre were both Knuckles' grandfathers, the first literelly, the latter seven generations removed.

We were both dismissed then, with orders not to reveal Mobius's invasion to any other teams. I have to admit that, at first, I didn't see why we had to keep it a secret. It was only on my way to the hospital for a few quick visits that it occurred to me just why secrecy was so vital.

The invasion of one world would spark fear in other leaders for their own worlds. They would all want to leave to protect their own world, leaving Knothole2 and our own army at a loss. It would very well change the entire war in our enemy's favor.

We couldn't allow the enemy to gain any further upper hands. That was the foremost thing on my mind, even as I entered Remington's room.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Remington was, oddly enough, alone. No visitors or nurses. Usually, there's atleast one, with a few nurses. Now, however, he was sitting on his bed, looking out the window next to said bed.

He didn't notice me, even as I walked to a few feet away from his side, peering at him a bit. He looked..sad. Very sad. Depressed, even. Considering what he lived through, not unusual.

"Remington-san?" I whispered, not wanting to startle him.

However, he was startled, and looked to me with surprise evident in his eyes. "Oh. Miss Donna. I hadn't noticed you there."

I frowned a bit. "Are you okay?"

He looked back to the window. "I'm fine. Perfectly fine."

Why didn't that sound believeable? "Remington-san.." I paused for a minute, not sure if I should ask such a question so bluntly. "..How did you loose your leg?"

He blinked once at the unexpected query, looking back to me. "Ah.." His eyes traveled to his legs, and his expression turned a bit sour. "..They took it off."

Well, we already knew that. "..Remington-san.." I sighed. "..We know what happened."

He looked to me sharply, an alarmed expression on his face. "What do you mean?"

I couldn't believe I was doing this. Damn those 'Rape victim' books. Damn my old school for making me read them (pfft). "You're girlfriend is going to find out that something's wrong when she sees how sad you've gotten. If you talk to someone about it, then mabye you won't be so sad."

Neither of us said anything for a moment.

He interrupted the silence. "Fiancee. She's my fiancee."

Oh, dear. That was bound to make things even worse.

Another few seconds of silence. This was starting to get disturbing. "Remington-san..?"

"I don't want to talk about it yet, Miss Donna."

I nodded, frowning. "I'll talk to you later, then. I need to visit a few others." I headed to the door, but stopped a moment, glancing back. He didn't move from his seat, looking out the window again. So, I left. I really hoped he would atleast talk to me about it.

"You care too much." A cold, almost grating voice, resounded through the silence as I came out of Remington's room.

I looked over, only to blink once. "Auron-san." It was a statement, not a question.

"Hn. Why do you worry so much over those you don't even know?"

I looked at the swordsman. "Because if I don't, who will?" I sighed. He didn't say anything. Neither did I, for a moment.

Silence.

I sighed again. "I worry about everyone here, Auron-san. Where I'm from, it's the lack of care that gets people killed."

Neither of us said anything again. I walked off then, deciding that my statement was the final word in our conversation.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

I'm going to start banging my head against a hard surface soon.

While Jen and I were putting the teams together, I tried to write down the status of every warrior who could not go on the mission. It was bad to start off with, and horrendous to finish.

Too..Many..Things happening..At once! Gah!

Physical injuries, psychological damage, favorites..Eesh.

To top it all off, at about eleven P.M., I walked out for a quick breather, only to find myself in an altercation between who I classify (as a whole) as the 'Mobian Furries' and the 'Lylatian Furries'. Both groups were technically anthropomorphic (two-legged) animals, but were different in stature and origin.

The Mobians were from, obviously, the planet Mobius, and were usually about three to five feet tall, depending the species.

The Lylatians were from different planets in the Lylat System, and ranged mainly from four feet to seven feet tall, but usually nearing the six foot range.

I walked in on Falco Lombardi (Lylat) and Vector Crocodile (Mobius) beating each other up, and their respective friends either trying to seperate them or cheering them on.

After balking for a moment, "What the hell is going on here?!"

It all stopped, everyone staring at me. I looked back and forth between the two groups before asking again, "Well?!"

"They started it!" Vector claimed, right off the bat.

"If you weren't all so disgusting, we wouldn't start anything!" Falco replied. Vector tried to lunge at him again, but was held back by Espio Chameleon.

I twitched. "Falco, care to elaborate?" I seethed. I was trying to remain calm. Really, I was.

Falco actually looked afraid of me. Cool. "Th-they don't even wear clothes, like normal people!"

I twitched again. "Normality is in the eye of the beholder, Falco. Besides that, their fur, spines and whatever covers what needs to be covered. They don't need to wear clothing." A few of the Mobians grined. "Now, if that's all, would you all go back to your huts? There's a big mission tomorrow."

They left then, most grumbling. I sighed.

Too many things happening at once.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was fairly uneventfull after that, untill I was able to get to bed. I only visited a few other rescued people, including little Lilly/Bubbles. I refuse to call her 'Bubbles'. The 'Powerpuff Girls' cartoon was strange enough when it was fantasy. Now that it's a strange sort of reality..

..Ugh. Migrane.

Anyway, Lilly was completely unhurt. Seems whoever kept her chained in that room kept rather good care of her. Well, as good a care as a kidnapped five year old can have.

I headed to sleep at half past midnight, after delivering the constructed team lists to Selenity that Jen and I argued and labored over for well over five hours.

------------------------------------------------------------------

Know what? Symbolic dreams seriously suck.

Usually, I have bare half-rememberences of dreams. Perhaps a few images, or a concept. This one, however, was so clear that I recalled every detail in the morning. I wrote everything down in my diary as soon as I woke up, at seven in the morning.

The dream was pitch black at first, although I was aware of myself. I seemed to be radiating my own light, since I was able to see my own hands and body, but nothing else.

After a minute of failed shadow puppets, symbols suddenly appeared in front of my eyes, each identical in shape but different in color. Nine symbols, in a particular order that struck me as important, though for a reason unknown.

It looked something like this: ^n^ ^n^ ^n^ ^n^ ^n^ ^n^ ^n^ ^n^ ^n^

The first two symbols were a bright, fiery red. The third a light brown. The fourth a dark brown. The fifth and sixth were a shade of purple. Seventh was red, like the first two. And the eighth and ninth were white.

At first, nothing happened, and I spent that time in mild confusion. Then, the fifth quickly changed to an ash-color, before crumbling to dust.

Then, the first rose in the air above the others, hovering a few inches above it's previous spot.

Spheres (that I swear looked like bubbles) then came out of nowhere, surrounding the entire group of symbols, but not covering them from view. Literelly, they looked like bubbles. Little spheres of transparent fluid.

Something strange happened then. What I can only describe as the background music from the 'Sixth Sense' movie filled the area. It represented something, although i'm unsure as to what.

The strange 'music' continued to play, even as the bubbles moved in on the ones remaining in a streight line and caught the second, third, fourth, sixth, seventh and ninth within. The eighth, before a bubble could catch it, moved into the air in the same way that the first did before.

The ones caught in the bubbles shook slightly, as if struggling, even as the 'music' suddenly got louder. Blue water filled the bubbles with the captured symbols, in a certain order that, again, I found important for an unknown reason: Seventh, second, sixth, third, ninth, fourth.

Those four continued to shake for a few seconds, before stopping all together and standing still. I woke up, then, confused for a moment. Then I wrote it all down.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

We were set to attack at sunset, right before the 'Starting Ceremony' for Humanity Fair. Mostly for the cover of night, but perhaps drama had something to do with it.

In that time, I double checked who we were taking, making sure no one would come down with a last-minute illness or injury. The last thing we needed at this point was a quick-fix replacement.

Twenty teams. Fifteen to a team. No backups or special incentives, this time; It was every team for themselves. An army of three hundred. My favorites were barred from the mission again. Most understood. Duo Maxwell was still pissed off. I found him later on in the bar, drunk off his ass. For what I was told, he woke up with a hangover after we left. Some were banned from going for injuries, as well. All this, at first, put us at a serious disadvantage. Not enough to fill the spots.

So, we went to extremes. My parents were to see their first real battle, leading two teams of their own. Same with my sister and brother. Same with Jen.

I wasn't too worried about Jen being in the battle. She had seen more battles than I had. She was fine. It was my familly that I was afraid for. Sure, my sister had been in a few battles, but never had lead a team. My brother had been in one battle, but not leader. My parents..

..Oy. I hoped they would be all right. They had been training for only a couple of weeks.

Seeing my parents in the armor was rather odd. Although, I have to admit, my mother does look quite pretty in the armor. And after we suited up, my mother and I looked nearly identical, save for the marks of age. I have a fourth generation face, but I never imagined the similarites were this close.

We headed out for the battle an hour before sunset. I expected horror and pain to be seen that day. I just had no idea of the intensity of it.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

We hid amazingly well, considering we were so many, where we were. Surprisingly, we pulled it off. But I guess the use of Card Captor Sakura's 'Illusion' card had something to do with that.

Jen and I were leading our groups through the field, on a hill overlooking the labor camp. 'Humanity Fair', at first, looked like nothing but a circus. That is, untill you notice the cages, see the shackles, chains, torture and death equipment. Hear the crying.

"Aw, crud." I mumbled under my breath. A few years ago, I would have fainted at a sight like this. Now, I only swear.

I looked to the night sky, and knew that the Card Captor Sakura, along with my fathers' team, was up there, flying atop the 'Fly' card. 'Illusion' disguised it, as well. All I noticed were a few birds flying around. We weren't ment to attack yet. Not for another half an hour. We were scouting the area first, counting the guards and soldiers. My god, were there alot of guards and soldiers. I guess I should have figured that, though, with an event like this.

I heard Jake's thought-speech voice in my mind.

I sighed once, and then spoke into the MF-THC, "Jake found Kimahri. Behind the west wing of building four."

<"Wait, wait, BEHIND the building? ..Why is he in a cage behind the building, when the other captives are in cages around the main event?"> Lina Inverse's voice rang through.

I blinked once. I hadn't even thought of that.

<"Does it matter, Lina-san? He's unjustly held against his will by evil! We must free him, no matter where he is!"> Amelia, of course.

I sweatdropped heavilly.

With a pair of binoculors, I peered into the main area of the festival, at the cages. I blinked once at the inhabitant of one cage. I actually took the 'culors down for a moment, rubbed at my eyes, and looked again. "..Hrm. Takato, take a look to the left of marked door three. Is that who I think it is?"

After a moment of Takato taking a look, <"..Is that Impmon?"> Another pause. <"..Isn't he suposto be sorta..er..dead?">

I sweatdropped. "Apparently not."

Suddenly, lights flared. The crowd of humans below cheered. The festival was starting.

Early.

"Shitshitshitshit.." I mumbled, like a mantra. I then spoke into the MF-THC, "Guys!"

<"We know, we know! Damn, we weren't prepared for this.."> Falco Lombardi.

We needed something quick. I had to think of something quick.

I turned to look over my team, and spotted an eleven-year-old girl in pink armor. "Duplica!"

She looked over at my call, blinking once, before rushing over. "Donna-san, what do we do?"

"You have your partner?"

Confusion came across her features, but she nodded. "Yes, Ditto is at my side." Literelly, I supposed.

"Morph him..Her..IT.." Geeze. "Into a Stantler. I know that those critters can do a 'stampede illusion' thing."

She blinked again, but nodded, quickly opening the small encasement at her side. "Ditto!"

A small creature, which I honastly thought looked like a lump of moving clay with eyes and a mouth, came out of the 'Pokeball' with a flash, noting it's presence with a call of it's name.

Duplica smiled. "Ditto, change to Stantler and use your Illusion attack!"

This sounds so, so weird. Especially since I was anti-Pokemon before this war.

The little lump of clay called out it's name again, and quickly changed to a deer-like creature. Looked like a male deer (a buck, I think?) with weird antlers. Except for the pinpoint eyes, it was a perfect transformation.

Duplica sighed at the eyes. "Still can't get that right."

I decided not to make a comment, taking a look over at the 'festival'. A scream, and more cheers from the crowd. I felt like throwing up. Instead, I looked over to the young boy at my side. "Ken.." I paused a moment. "What did they just kill?"

He didn't look to good, either. Paler then usual. "A fox-person. Don't know the species. Looked Mobian."

A herde of Stantler suddenly rushed by my side, with no accompasing wind, only the sound of hoves. I looked over to Duplica and Ditto, nodding quickly.

I then spoke into the MF-THC, "I sent out a distraction. Ignore the deer with funky antlers. They're not real."

<"Yeah, I was wondering about that."> I heard my brother chuckle.

Jen giggled stupidly for a moment. <"Teehee. You said 'funky."> Somehow, I figured she would say something odd like that. She then caught on quickly, though. <"Lemme guess. We're gonna attack while the bad guys are distracted?">

I chuckled slightly, "You got it. I'm going to take my team inside building four. If Kimahri is behind the building, than mebbe there are innocents inside it."

<"Let's roll."> I heard my sister say. The significance of that statement was nearly ironic.

I heard human screams this time, noting that panic had indeed sunk into the enemy. Yay for us. I raised a hand, signalling for my group to follow.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

We climbed through the vents, down to the basement. Or subbasement. All I knew was that it was underground.

The sounds of the battle above us could be heard quite clearly. I knew that we were only a few miles above Knothole2.

My entire group paused as soon as we came down, looking around, silent. The place was huge. From the white walls, white doors, white floors, it seemed to either be a hospital or a lab. I wouldn't put either one past these guys.

No enemy troops, or anyone for that matter, were in sight.

"I don't like this." Ken Ichijouji remarked.

"I agree. It's too quiet." Stingmon added.

"Well, it could be that everyone left for the festival." Duplica suggested.

It was silent for another moment. We looked around the hallway we dropped into in that time, trying to see anything that was off.

"All right." I mumbled. "Seperate. Look around. We might find someone alive in here. Remember, anyone could--" A scream of pain filled the room, echoing in the hallways, intrupting my order.

We all gaped and looked around. I had no idea which room or where that particular scream came from.

"..Oo-kay. Mabye everyone didn't leave for the festival." I grumbled.

"Rowf!" A dog-like bark, from Duplica's Ditto, who turned into a striped dog (Growlithe, I think) sometime during all this. Said dog-thing ran off down the hall, barking.

"Ditto! Wait!" Duplica wound up running after it.

I sweatdropped for a moment, before following, raising my arm for a second to signal the rest to follow as well.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ditto-Growlithe had stopped barking by the time we caught up to it, a few minutes later, inside a small but dimly-lit room.

Ditto was no longer in the striped canine form, but was rather back into it's origonal lump-of-clay form. It was shaking and whimpering.

Duplica frowned and took the Pokemon into her arms. "Poor little Ditto." She then looked to the rest of us. "Something must have frightened her badly for her to demorph." The lump-of-clay was a girl?

I glanced around the small room. The room was mostly square-shaped, normal, except for the far wall, which seemed to be curved slightly. The curved wall was lined half-way up with blank computers and flashing buttons. I noticed small odd breaks every foot or so on the far wall.

After a short few seconds of silence as we all looked over the room silently with our eyes, Spike was the first to walk over to the computer consoles. The african-american teen looked over the computers, his back turned to us.

After yet another few seconds, "Spike? Know what the comps do?"

"...Not a damn clue."

We all sweatdropped. This might take a while.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

I should have seen it. The breaks in the wall were foldable parts. The wall was removeable.

"..Dude." I heard Spike remark as we looked into the strange room behind the computers. Oddly enough, that one word basically summed it all up.

A round room. Why does everything strange have to be in a round room? There were large, liquid-filled sphere-shaped chambers around the room. Eight of them, although two were open and empty. It opened very similer to a Pokeball, the top lifting up at the middle. I noticed Duplica, from the corner of my eye, shiver at the eerie similarity.

I walked over to the closest chamber thing. The liquid inside was a cloudy white, obscuring anything that may be inside. On the side of the chamber, nearly hidden from view, was a red symbol.

^n^

A red symbol within a liquid-filled sphere..

I frowned a bit, before noticing that the liquid had cleared slightly. I narrowed my eyes to get a closer look, and immediently gasped. "Knux!"

Knuckles the Echidna walked up behind me, hearing my gasp. "What is it?"

"Look." Was all that I needed to say.

He peered at the chamber for a minute, before gasping and gaping. "..Dad?"

Everything practically froze. I looked back to my other allies, and I could see the same expression on all their faces. Shock, concern, horror.

Knuckles ran to the side of the sphere and began to press at random buttons hurridly. "We need to get him out of there!"

It seems that we've all forgotten about the other chambers, or why we headed into this room in the first place.

After a few seconds of Knuckles practically pounding at buttons while the rest of us looked on in shocked concern, the chamber opened. The strange fluid spilled out, creating a small one-inch-high flood on the floor. The captive within was released into a rather unceremonious heap on the ground.

Wait. That wasn't Knuckles' father.

"Grandfather Sojourner!" The younger echidna gasped, kneeling down to his ancestor.

..Close enough. Still a relative.

Knuckles pulled at the breathing/feeding mask, which still encased his ancestor's muzzle, still connected by a single thick tube to the sphere. The mask came off after a few harsh tugs, leaving the elder echidna on his side, coughing up the same cloudy liquid which formerly resided in the chamber. I could tell that whoever had been in charge of feeding had done a very bad job of it; Sojourner was at least twenty pounds lighter than he should have been.

Sojourner's eyes widened, quickly flipped to a sit-up position, and threw up. Alot. I felt mildly sick myself at this sight, not wanting to know why sickly yellow and brown 'fluid' came from his stomach.

I heard a surprised cry suddenly, bringing me out of my disturbed reverie, followed by a yell of, "There are more people in these things!"

At first, I thought it had been Duplica who had yelled. However, after turning to see that she had not, I noticed the odd girl standing in front of one of the other chambers. She turned to look at the rest of us for a moment. The disturbing pinpoint eyes revealed the girl to be Ditto.

What do you know? Ditto is a girl.

Knuckles got up from his kneeling position next to Sojourner and ran to the same chamber Ditto was standing in front of. He immediently gasped. "Grandfather Sabre!"

It seemed that the captive Brotherhood of Guardians were beind held right in this room.

I kneeled down to Sojourner, noting that the brace around his waist and privates was still in place, still connected to the sphere by two thick tubes.

I pulled at it a bit, not quite sure how to remove it. The others tried to get the rest of the echidnas out of their own prisons.

A soft 'click' quickly got my attention, but I wasn't able to turn before a woman's voice warned me, "Step away from the chambers. Now."

Looking to the doorway we ourselves entered through, I saw a woman standing there, gun in hand. Said weapon was aimed at my head, as were the weapons of the six uniformed men at her side. I hadn't even noticed them come in.

It actually took me a few precious seconds to recognize the woman. "Mrs. Genereux?" Despite knowing where her loyalties now lied, I couldn't help but continue to refer to her as the teacher who once attempted to teach my class about the tourist cities of America.

She stared at me for a moment, then laughed. A cynic, maniacal laugh, far different from the friendly laugh I had once heard during my Senior Year. "Ah, you've heard of me!" She seemed positivly overjoyed at that.

It was obvious that she did not remember me. "Mrs. Genereux, it's me. Donna Kunz. I was your student at PRHS."

Blinking once, she then raised an eyebrow. "The girl who always slept in my class." Oh, that's how she remembers me. "I'll say it again. Step away from the chambers."

Strange whimpering filled the air. I glanced down to Sojourner, who whimpered and shook. He seemed..afraid. He was afraid of Genereux?

That certainly wasn't normal. He was a former Guardian of the Floating Island, now at a hundred and thirty seven years of age.

Knuckles seemed to be on the same line of thought, bringing a fist up, angry. "What the hell did you do to my familly!?"

Genereux laughed again. Malicious once again. "Nothing much. Simply used their chaos-enriched bodies to our advantage." What did she mean by that?

She stepped aside, revealing two more soldiers behind her. The two new soldiers were holding yet another echidna, who was practically coated with red blood. The purple shade of his fur told me which of Knuckles' ancestors it was right away. Only one member of the Brotherhood of Guardians had purple fur.

Knuckles gasped, as well as everyone else. They were all horrified by all the blood on one creature. "Grandfather Thunderhawk.."

The numbers did not add up. That thought came to me then, but I paid it no mind. I didn't know what it ment, but I could not spare time to think about it.

Both soldiers holding the blood-coated echidna pointed their own guns at Thunderhawk's head. Thunderhawk's head was bowed, feather-like bangs hiding his face from view. For a moment, I wasn't aware if he was conscious or not.

Clear droplets trickled from his face. Silent tears. He was crying. This was also not normal for any member of the Brotherhood. This was wrong on so many levels.

Genereux grinned. "This is my final warning. Step away from th-" She never got to finish that sentence.

I'm sure that we had all been hoping for a miracle, for something or someone to help us along in such a situation. Personally, I hadn't expected one to come along, and certainly not in the form of a giant cactus.

Said twenty-foot-tall cactus crashed down from the battle above. It took out half of the room we were in, adjacent rooms, and the hallway. It probably took out more, but I couldn't tell from where I was. It also landed atop our enemies, and then crashed another level down.

We were all left gaping for a moment, wondering exactly what just happened. It was quite unexpected and utterly strange. A giant gloved cactus crashing from the top level.

Wait, gloved?

"...Oooww.." A deep yet female voice came from below. I peered down.

"Togemon?"

The cactus looked up at me, blinking large dark orb eyes. She (for she was, indeed, female) then glowed brightly. I had to shield by eyes with my forearm for the duration of the glow, about two seconds. I looked back down. The much smaller form of Palmon lied where Togeman had the moment before.

I turned my MF-THC back on to recieve all transmissions, not too surprised to be suddenly bombarded with orders and warnings from other fighters. I yelled into the MF-THC, "We found a whole buncha injured echinda here! Palmon is also hurt! We need flyers!"

As if on cue, a large bird soared past me and down the crushed level. Duplica was riding atop what I recalled to be a Fearow with pinpoint eyes.

I assumed that Duplica and Ditto would take care of everything below, so I turned back to what was left of this floor. The chambers hadn't been pulled down, a miracle in itself, but had been hit by debri from above.

The captive echidnas had been taken out, either by my allies figuring out the controls, or by smashing the chamber open by force. Two of the chambers had been open by force, it seems, judging by the broken glass. Each had gone through the same as Sojourner had upon awakening, releasing the contents of their stomachs.

The numbers did not add up. Again, the thought.

I walked over to Sojourner. I kneeled down, trying to open the still-encased metal around his pelvic area. I then noticed that there was a simple little hatch on the brace's side.

A simple little hatch. I am such an idiot.

I let out a small 'oy' before talking into the MF-THC again. "Those helping the freed echidna, flip the hatch on the left side on the lower brace to get it off."

There was no response to my words, but I noticed Ken and Spike getting a brown-furred echidna out of the lower brace.

Ditto-Fearow sqwaked from behind me, and I turned to see Duplica and Palmon riding atop. A bloodied, purple echidna was in their arms. Palmon looked mildly ill.

I spoke into the MF-THC again, "Okay, let's move out! We got what we came for!"

Knuckles' voice came over the MF-THC, <"Donna, come over here. I'll climb us to the top."> Looking around for a moment, I saw the red echidna waving a hand to get my attention. I ran over quickly, and wrapped my arms around his waist. He only smiled at that, obviously used to it from carrying others, and only warned me to hang on.

Using his sharply-knuckled fists to climb, Knuckles and I got halfway up with no altercation. I looked to the side then, my intent on seeing the chaos below from a better vintage point. Instead, I noticed a smaller level between the one we were on and the battle atop. It looked like..a nursery. Cribs were slightly scattered on the floor of that level.

"Hey, Knux, head over there." Knuckled looked over to where I was faced towards, and paused for a moment. He seemed surprised that a nursery was there. "Uh, sure." Was his response, now climbing sideways.

The sounds of a couple dozen crying babies could be heard after a second, as we climbed towards the nursery. Knuckles made a small, disturbed sound. I looked to his face to see him frowning.

It took us another couple of seconds to get there at his pace. I hopped down from his waist, landing on the slightly slanted floor. Togemon must have crashed through this nursery. A few cribs were sideways, some toppled over completely, and one was even teetering on the edge of the broken floor. A few must have fallen down, as well. That last thought disturbed me slightly.

I called into the MF-THC again, "We found babies here! Lots of young babies! We need more help here!"

<"Children?!"> A startled, deep voice rang through. <"These foul creatures have innocent children captive?!"> Must be Silverbolt. Not many others use 'foul' in a sentence.

I sighed slightly, "Just, get here! We need to airlift these kids out!"

"Donna! These kids aren't normal!" Knuckles called out, holding one still-crying baby in his arms.

I looked over to him, blinking in confusion, before running over to the closest crib. I looked down at the baby, who seemed human to my eyes. Then, I noticed that it had a lizard-like tail, tanned golden in color. Elven-like ears, as well, under a small bit of golden hair. The baby was a Ryuuzoku.

Filia is going to have another nervous breakdown, I knew right then and there. Fluttering of wings and the decleration of, "Got you!" caused me to look over. Silverbolt, in robot form, had caught the child who was in the teetering crib from below, and held what looked like a baby Mobian armadillo in his arms.

Fluttering of more wings, and the occasional sound of someone hovering, further disguised the sounds of the crying children. More allies had arrived, using their own methods to save these children in the middle of the still ongoing battle. A few of the babies were hovering on their own. One of my telekenetic allies must've been helping out.

I was suddenly startled to find that my feet were no longer touching solid ground. Looking downward, I realised I was slowly rising upwards. I grabbed a baby from the closest crib before I was out of range, and was then lifted quickly on to the level above. "Whoever did that, thanks." Was all I could think of saying into the MF-THC.

<"You're welcome, Miss Donna."> Came the response from what sounded like a strained teenage girl. Must have been Jean Grey. Hey, just because they've joined the large army, doesn't necessarilly mean I know everyone by voice.

<"Waah! Digimon down, Digimon down! Help!"> A terrified cry rung through the MF-THC. I looked around the chaotic battlezone, attention not yet drawn to myself from Lasarius's soldiers. I spotted a small, white rabbit-like creature trying to fend off two soldiers.

<"Terriermon?! Why are you in that form?!"> I recognized that young voice to be Michael, one of the Digidestined.

I still held a baby in my arms. I knew that the downed Digimon needed aid, but the baby might get hurt if I tried to make my way through.

<"Well, how would you react to a bunch of bullets?!"> Terriermon responded, sarcasm thick. <"Jenrya! Hel--GAAH!"> Terriermon went flying, the Digimon's MF-THC cracking off, broken, as he was hit in the back of the head by a soldiers' fist.

"Crap. Someone, help him! I'm carrying a young child, I can't risk getting through!" I called in, looking to my side. Depth Charge stood, firing both laser and his ion disk weapons. I headed to him, running at top speed. If anyone can offer shelter, it would be the giant manta-bot. "Depthie! I need to get this kid to shelter!"

He looked down and nodded. "Get behind me, then."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Secondary Point of View: Terriermon

My name is Terriermon. I'm a Digimon, and partner to Jenrya Lee.

I am in really, really deep shit.

The rescue battle wound up in a sort of a mess. The teams wound up seperated and scattered, fighting for their lives. I had been seperated from my own group while in Rapidmon form. I guess the bad guys figured to take out the big flyer first. They all rushed over as if I was target practice!

Even an Ultimate level Digimon, as I was at the time, can't stand up against several dozen bullets from all directions. I tried to fly off, but they kept shooting! I went down two levels -- TWO! -- to my Rookie level stage.

Most of those creeps that attacked me decided to leave me alone. I guess a Rookie didn't seem like much of a danger then. Boy, were they wrong!

Only one of those bozos remained. I guess he wanted to finish me off.

Hey, I may look liked a horned bunny, but I can still pack a punch! One Terrier Tornado later, and he went down!

Of course, then two others showed up. Jerks. I tried to Tornado at 'em, too. One kicked me mid-Tornado. He kicked me!

I fell on my back with one heck of a stomach ache. Despite all the fighting going on around us, the two humans were walking up to me as if nothing was going on.

I rolled onto my stomach, narrowly missing a bullet, and hopped to my stubby feet. I risked a glance around to look for Jenrya, but couldn't see him. My MF-THC was still on my head, tho'. Must have changed forms right along with me.

"Waa! Digimon down, Digimon down! Help!"

<"Terriermon?! Why are you in that form?!"> Michael, a Tamer I knew nothing about, responded.

"Well, how would you react to a bunch of bullets?!" Sarcastic, of course. I turned back to face the two humans, only to see them gone. I gaped for a moment. "Jenrya, something is seriously wrong here! Hel--GAH!" I let out a cry as something hard hit the back of my head.

I tumbled forward, getting slightly bruised along the way. I stopped tumbling a few feet away, on my back. I barely had time to even moan before some big galoot put his foot on my cheast and held me down.

I opened my eyes to see a gun pointed at my face; Not the best thing you want to see. Said gun was being held by one of the bozo soldiers I was up against, who smiled down at me.

I gotta admit, I was really afraid. Terrified! If I was deleted now, I wouldn't be reborn as an egg! Everything slowed down, making two seconds seem like an hour. The whole 'life flashes before eyes' thing went into effect. Hatching, my first evolution, meeting Jenrya, our advantures..

The gun fired. A loud boom was all I heard for a moment. Then, pain. Lots of pain.

..Wait. I wasn't dead?

My left ear had been shot. My stubby arms clutched at the floppy ear, and I yelped as my fingers touched the wound. How the heck had that bozo missed at point blank range? ..Er, not that I was complaining.

I looked away from my wound to see..a dwarf? Yeah, a dwarf guy with a braided beard, fighting the guy that tried to delete me. With an axe. I then fell back on the ground with a moan, realising how close I had just come to permanent deletion.

Something then gripped at my fresh wound, and I yelped in pain. Looking over my left soldier, I felt another wave of fear as the second human clutched at my ear with one huge hand. His other hand held a gun, pointed right at my face.

This was so not my day.

"Fire Rocket!" A battle cry later, and the guy holding me had been knocked away. Flamedramon stood a foot or so away from me, growling at my attacker. Flamey then raced over, grabbed me quickly into his armored arms, and leaped away. "Hang on, Terriermon. We've been called into retreat."

I blinked once. "Huh? We have?" Uh.. "How come I didn't know?"

Flamedramon actually laughed. "You're communicator went flying off." Huh. I hadn't even noticed. "Let's get out of here. You need a medic."

End Secondary Point of View

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

I brought the baby to the hospital. I didn't check on the child past what was necessary, didn't make any visits, nothing. I decided to simply bypass it off. What I needed right then was a nap and half a dozen asperin tablets.

That was far too close. Too much chaos in that battle. I wasn't even quite sure yet if we had lost anyone. Not untill a few hours later, anyway.

One nap later, and I went back to my duties.

The escaped Mobians and Robians had arrived while we were away. Lilly/Bubbles was fine; She and "Dr. Fishy" (where had she gotten that name from, anyway?) were still spending time together. She refused to leave his side. Remington's fiancee' had arrived along with the Mobians, but he refused to see her. I would have to check on that later.

After checking that bit off, I headed to the park. On the way, I saw a Transmetal2 feline robot sulking, being lectured by Optimal Optimus Primal. If you ever need to see a weird scene, just think about a 22-foot-tall robot (and we measured that!) pointing a finger and leacturing a cybernetic sabertooth cat.

"What were you thinking, Cheetor? You know better than that!" I heard Primal say.

"Hey, it wasn't my fault! I swear, someone must have spiked my drink!" Cheetor was obviously trying to defend himself from whatever he did.

I walked closer, neither noticing me.

"Cheetor, we're Cybertronians. Unless someone knew exactly what to put in your drink, it couldn't have been spiked."

Cheetor was silent for a minute, a blank expression on his face. It seems that his defense was not working. "..But.."

"No 'but's. Did you even appologize to that poor Renamon?" Renamon?

"Um..Did something happen?" I finally asked, bringing the attention of both robots to myself.

Cheetor looked at me with a pleading expression. I swear, this situation was almost like a child being punished.

Someone let out an angry scream from behind me. I turned around, only to see Ruki, one of the Digidestined, and Renamon's partner. She seemed very, very angry.

Huh. Cheetor got drunk (as odd as that sounds). I got that much. Optimus said that he did something to Renamon.

...Oh, dear.

I looked back to a very worried-looking feline. "What did you do, Cheets?"

Ruki ran forward and actually tackled Cheetor, "You're dead!!"

I simply gaped for a moment. Cheetor wasn't even fighting back, and only huddled. The 11-year-old was not doing much damage, if any at all, considering that it was a human-on-robot fight. If only a one-sided one, at that.

Looking to Optimus, I got as much of an answer as anyone can give me: "He tried to flirt with her."

..Ah. I looked back to the 'fight'. "..He must have been very drunk."

Optimus let out a sigh, and walked off. Loud footsteps.

I decided to stick around for a few minutes more, amused, before walking off on my own. Strange situations keep happening around here.

-------------------------------------------------------------

The first thing I saw upon entering the hospital again was somewhat disturbing. Knuckles was sitting in a coushined chair, head in one hand. Julie-Su, a pink semi-borg-ish echidna, was sitting next to him. Her hand was on his soldier, in a form of comfort.

What happened?

I walked over to the pair, stopping a foot away. The two were talking.

"Don't worry, Knux. I'm sure that someone will find him. Many others were rescued, he'll be found eventually." Julie-Su tried to sooth the echidna everyone knew she had feelings for, but the two of them.

Knuckles pounded a fist on an armrest. "How long will that take, Julie? Everything is happening too quickly. Mighty and Remington allready went through torture and pain, and my ancestors were found in..in.." He didn't seem quite sure how to put that. He pounded his fist again, "Julie, what's going to happen to him?!"

I took a few more steps forward. Both finally realised I was there, and looked to me. Neither said anything, so I decided to say something first. "What happened?"

Knuckles sighed, looking to the floor. He looked like he wanted to cry.

Julie frowned, concern evident. "Knuckles' dad wasn't there."

I blinked. Twice. Not sure what to say. I thought we had rescued all of the captu--.

..Oh. Well, I'm an idiot. I sighed, realising. "Knuckles' father wasn't in a chamber.."

Julie only nodded softly, then went back to consoling Knuckles.

I walked off, heading to the rooms where the rescued members of Knuckles' familly were being kept, and began thinking back. I was there during the rescue. Why hadn't I noticed one was missing?!

..Two chambers empty. Thunderhawk, bloody, being held outside of the chamber. One was missing.

..Eight chambers. If Athair and Spectre escaped, and Knuckles's father, Locke, and Thunderhawk were outside of the chambers, there would be only three.

The numbers did not add up.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Walking into the first of the rooms that Knuckles' ancestors were being treated in, I came upon yet another disturbing sight.

Thunderhawk, the purple echidna that was covered in blood, was actually strapped down to the hospital bed. He seemed completely awake, eyes wide over a full-muzzle breathing mask, looking up fearfully. Doctor Mizuno was standing above the echidna, back to me, with a large syringe in hand.

"What the hell are you doing?!" That was the first thing I yelled, running in.

Doctor Mizuno looked startled, turning to see me. She then put on too-cheerfull smile. "Oh, I'm only giving him some painkillers."

"Then why is he strapped down?"

"He was trying to hurt himself. It was necessary."

Why did I not believe her? Somehow, this all seemed wrong. Doctor Mizuno is usually a trustfull person; Long-time friend of Neo Queen Selenity, princess of Mercury, Sailor Soldier of said planet.

However, lately, she seemed..off.

"Mizuno-sensai, I insist that you give this 'medication' later. He's suffered through enough to have a needle that size shoved in his arm."

She frowned, but put the syringe on a nearby counter. "All right, then." She then walked out of the room.

I kept my eyes on her every step of the way, untill I was able to close the door. Looking back to the purple echidna, I noticed the pure relief that was over his face now.

"Thunderhawk?"

He looked back up, then. He seemed surprised that I knew his name.

"Are you all right now, sir?" Yes, make him feel more comfortable by being overly-polite. "Do you need any help?"

His eyes held a smile. He probably would have smiled with his mouth, too, had the breathing mask not been in place. He then shook his head softly, letting out a small sigh, and closed his eyes.

He fell asleep. He must have been exhausted, after everything that he's been through.

I headed over to the counter, picking up the syringe. It seemed normal enough, save for the liquid inside being a strange orange color. Certainly not normal. I placed the syringe in a pocket and smiled a bit, myself, before heading back out. I closed the door behind me, and decided not to visit the other rooms.

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"So, uh, what's this 'Haven' thing about, anyway?"

I stared at my sister, somewhat surprised at the question. "You really didn't pay attention to the Archie Comics version of the Sonic the Hedgehog universe, huh?"

She looked amused. "Pay attention? I didn't even read it."

Well, that would explain it.

My sister and I were sitting at a table in the equivilent of a cafeteria. Although, it wasn't in a large hut. By all means, it would be considered 'outdoors', despite it being completely underground, along with everything else in Knothole2.

I chuckled slightly. "And I quote from Knuckles' great grandfather Athair, the Brotherhood is what the Guardians of the Floating Island aspire to, and Haven is where they go."

Sharon stared at me. "..And that means?"

I sweatdropped and sighed. "Each Guardian joins the Brotherhood when they leave the Guardian duties to their offspring, and Haven is where they all live. Secret guardians for the Guardian, I think."

She nibbled on a sandwich. "Ah." She paused for a moment. "Why are there only guys in it, though? Aren't there girls in it?"

"I think the females died of age. Atleast, most of them. I know Knuckles's mother is still alive. I think it has something to do with the chromosomes."

She blinkes at me a bit. "What do chromosomes have to do with it?"

I shrugged a bit. "It's just my little theory. The X..Or Y..Or whatever chromosome it is that seperates the males from the females have a natural life legnthner. I mean, one of the Brotherhood people died at age one hundred and ninety seven from things the normal of any species would die of at seventy. I just assumed that it didn't effect the females the same way."

-------------------------------------------------------------------

I was headed to the park again (I like the park. It's a nice park.), looking for some rest and relaxation. On the way, I found myself stareing in shock at yet another disturbing sight.

Rikku, the teenage girl from the FFX group, was sobbing harsly. Jen was comforting her with a hug and soothing words.

...Holy crap. I completely forgot about the FFX people.

I ran forward at that, slightly panicked. "What's wrong? What happened?!"

Jen glared at me, whispering harshly, "Where have you been?!"

Okay. I deserved that. "I've been busy." Was my response. "What happened? Rikku-san?"

Rikku only sobbed more, trying to respond between heart-wrenching sobs. I managed to catch a few words. Something about Lulu and Kimahri and a..pregnancy? A pregnancy!?

"Gah! What happened?!" I just about yelled out, truly panicked and concerned now.

Jen sighed, frowning. "Lasarius's scientists have been experimenting with genetic impregnation." Genetic impregnation?"

I let out a sigh of my own. "We're dealing with possible Ex-Twelves now, aren't we?"

Jen nodded, still comforting a near-hysterical Rikku.

"It's a little late for that, actually."

Jen and I both turned at that voice. Rikku continued to sob.

I was first to say the name of the new arrival. "Hotaru-sama."

The Sailor Soldier of the planet Saturn looked rather grim. "Those babies that were rescued all have Ex-Twelve barcodes on the back of their necks."

I frowned further. Shit.

"What's further disturbing is that most of the children are offspring of previously captured or recently rescued soldiers from Knothole2. They've all been informed."

I let out a swear, and turned to look to Jen and Rikku. Rikku was still sobbing. Jen simply looked angry. Something clicked in my mind. I turned back to look at Hotaru. "All of the Final Fantasy Ten people were only recently rescued."

Hotaru actually shook her head. "No, not all of them, thank goodness. Only those two that we did not manage to rescue with the rest."

Jen grumbled. "Lemme guess. Paired 'em up." Rikku let out a wail at that.

I frowned. "Jen, get Rikku out of here." She nodded, and I turned back to Hotaru. "Forced breeding?"

Hotaru shook her head again. "No. Atleast, not that we know of. From what we know, it was completely done with the use of genetics and technology."

I nodded at that. ..Hmm. I took out, from my pocket, the large syringe filled with the orange liquid. "Hotaru-sama, can you check this out for me? Mizuno-sama had tried to inject this into one of the rescued echidna's."

Hotaru took the syringe, and frowned. "You don't trust her?"

I simply shrugged. "Something seemed off."

She nodded, and put the syringe..someplace. Subspace pocket, perhaps. I then walked off, headed to the hospital.

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The hospital was completely packed. Atleast a full quarter of the residents of Knothole2 had to be here. Gurneys were stationed in the halls; Seems we ran out of normal rooms. "What the hell?" Was all I could think of saying.

I passed by the gurneys, intent on finding someone who could tell me what was going on. On the way, I passed a collection of the Digidestined groups, all three of the groups including the Digimon, crowded around a single gurney. Concerned, if slightly curious as well, I made my way through.

Terriermon (well, one of the Terriermon) was lying on the gurney, moaning in pain. His left ear vibrated every so often, going transparent for a short second along with the vibration. I recognized the sympton of deletion.

"What's wrong with him?" I asked the collective group.

Jyou Kido, Digidestined and doctor, stepped next to the gurney and frowned. "The bullets the soldiers were using in that last battle were poisoned."

I looked to the blue-haired eighteen year old, concerned. "Poisoned?"

Terriermon grabbed onto Jenrya Lee's sleeve with his small arms, letting out a cry. "Jenrya! I don't wanna be deleted!" Jenrya hugged his Digimon partner.

Both were crying near-silent tears.

"Fuck.." I actually said aloud.

Jyou injected the contents of a small syringe into Terriermon, who quickly complained. "Everyone who was even grazed with a bullet has been poisoned. Different symptoms for different species.

I backed away from the Digidestined and the gurney carrying Terriermon, not sure what I was doing. I then turned and walked along the hallway, passing by other gurney's.

Most were in the same position as Terriermon, moaning in pain. Some had hardly any pain; perhaps a reddish/purplish bruise where they were shot and symptoms similer to a bad cold.

I then spotted the room I was originally headed for, and headed inside.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Genereux was trying to use their chaos-enriched bodies for energy. Experiments, physical and psychological torture, you name it, they probably went through it." Washuu explained to me, telling me what the captured Brotherhood of Guardians had gone through.

"Who were the other echidna's we found? Some were not Knuckles' relatives."

"On the contrary, they were. Athair was there. Along with that Enerjak guy that Knuckles told me about. Even a couple of Enerjak's decendents." She paused for a moment. "These people are incredably old."

I chuckled slightly. "But you're still older."

She cackled. "Too true! But that's because i'm a genius!" Two puppets, cartoonish versions of herself, popped up on her shoulders. One marked 'A' and the other marked 'B'.

"Washuu, you're a genius!" 'A' complimented in a high-pitched voice.

"An incredible genius!" 'B' agreed.

Washuu simply cackled again. A spotlight from somewhere focused on her as she cackled.

I simply gaped, sweatdropping. "You know, there's a fine line between genius and insanity." My comment shattered the moment. Washuu stopped cackling. Both puppets fell to the ground with simontanious cries of alarm.

"I am not insane! I am a genius!" Both puppets came up at that, and echoed their previous compliments.

I sweatdropped. "Right, right. Washuu, can you tell me more about what happened?"

The pink-haired girl/woman became serious again. "They were apparently there for a full year and a half, now, since Knuckles himself joined our little army."

I frowned. "How is that possible? Selenity herself said that they only knew since recently, perhaps a month or so ago. She also said that Athair was safe. I would have thought that someone would have known before then."

"Someone did know." A third voice joined our conversation.

Both of us looked to the doorway. Washuu was clearly as surprised as I was to see a familliar three and a half year old girl standing there. "Chibichibi?"

The red-haired child stepped forward, the wooden door shifting shut behind her. "About six months ago, I saw them being held. I told Mercury-sama, but it seems she didn't feel like it was important enough for Selenity-sama to know."

Despite the shock of hearing the young girl speak so fluently (as apposed to her usual simply repetition of words and baby-speak), I managed to catch what she had said. "You told Sailor Mercury, but she didn't tell Selenity?"

I looked to Washuu, and she looked to me. Both of us had the same expression on our faces. Something was not right with Ami Mizuno/Sailor Mercury.

Washuu blinked for a moment, then looked to Chibichibi. "Hey, what happened to the way you speak? I thought you didn't know how to talk properly yet."

Chibichibi looked a bit sad, and shook her head a bit. "It was only a ruse. A coverup. I still maintain the memories from before, before I died twice as Sailor Galaxia. I assumed if my own allies wouldn't know, my enemies wouldn't be able to know either."

Washuu and I looked to each other again, and then back to Chibichibi. The young girl still looked worried.

"Please don't tell anyone! I need to keep this as much of a secret as anything!"

I smiled, and nodded. "Of course. I understand the need to keep certain things secret. Even important things." Similer to how only the Sailor Senshi knew that Jen and I had created Lasarius.

Washuu nodded, as well. "It's for the best, I suppose."

Chibichibi smiled at us, the smile of a true naive toddler. "Chibichibi play. Park!" Back to her usual baby speak.

I nodded to the again-child, who opened the door and ran off, giggling like a true child.

Washuu and I met gazes again. "..Washuu?" She was smiling strangely.

Washuu cackled again, poseing. "I am still the top genius!"

The puppets reappeared.

I sweatdropped. "Washuu-chan! Stop doing that! It's scary!"

She, along with the puppets, only cackled.

--------------------------------

Author notes: ..And that's it for chap 7! Stay tuned for chapter 8! ..Heck, I don't even know what's gonna happen anymore. This stuff writes itself. ^^; But, nonetheless: Chapter Eight! Title in progress! (sweatdrops) ..Complicated relations arise, and the full horror of what Lasarius himself is capable of inflicting! Read or..er..don't. But if you don't, i'll be sad. ^^;

Nevermore22's Author Notes: ...Holy crap, this chapter is long. *sweatdrops* ..Sorry for the amazingly long wait on this one, readers, but we just couldn't stop writing. ^^; ..And, yes, 'we'! It's a Round Robin! The other three authors are Alba Aulbath (who has fanfic here on ff.net), Cecilia (my sis, who never wrote any fanfic before this), and Kassil ven Roshah (who writes loads of good stuff in various places). Try to guess who writes what part. ^_^ Enjoy!

Alba Aulbath's Author Notes: Disclaimers and Useless/Useful Stuff To Know: I don't own this. Never will. Wish I did.

Kassil ven Roshah's Author Notes: First off, thanks to the original authors for letting me join the madness - so far, it's been fun, and I'm looking forward to continuing it. Hope y'all reading this have as much fun reading it as I did helping to write it... Oh, and Neko, I blame you for it all.

Cecilia's Author Notes: I own it all! Dahahaha! You can't have it! ... Er.. Anyway. Hope you like it. Can't wait to write more! ^_^;;

Nevermore22: ..Uh-huh. Apparently, Alba had no idea what to put, and Cecilia is insane. Okay. Well, enjoy! And review! ^_^

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Nevermore22's title: Interceptions and Realizations! Six Post Faire!

Alba's title: Guilt TAKES oveRRRrrrrr...

Kassil's title: Fright! Events spiral! Multiple Primes?!

Cecilia's title: ...Do I have to title this? ^^;

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Third Person: Orion

Light gradually filtered into the deep, dreamless depths where Orion's mind passed away the hours of sleep; he fought against the urge to wake, hoping to hold onto the illusion of safety for a short time more before being dragged back to the waking world. Unfortunately, the very act of trying to remain asleep dragged his mind back to the surface, until he was finally dragged from the darkness into the light.

Carefully, he cracked his eyes open; for a moment a blinding white light assaulted his eyes, then faded down to a tolerable level as his eyes adjusted; gradually it resolved into a light overhead, oddly different from the one he was used to seeing. It looked almost too normal for him to believe - just a simple pair of the incandescent bulbs, with a shade hiding the bulbs from view, rather than the harsh white glare of the bulb his cell had.

As his mind gradually caught up to his body, he became aware of other strange things - the feel of something other than a cold floor under him, and the smell of actual medicines, rather than the foul stench of the labratories that normally assaulted him with their stink upon awakening. Also different was the sound - the muted noise of a busy place, with none of the ear-piercing screams that marked the passage of time for prisoners in the cells.

Carefully, he opened his eyes the rest of the way, silently lifting his head just enough to look around. What he saw was even stranger; the room wasn't a cell or a labratory, instead looking almost like a hospital ward. Orderlies moved around, checking each of the patients occupying the beds that filled the room in neat rows. One of them noticed the movement as he raised his head a bit farther, and hurried across the room towards him; as he silently tensed, ready to fight if she tried to sedate him, she stopped at the foot of his bed and gave him a smile that seemed strange, at first - strange, that is, until he realized that it was a genuine smile, with none of the edge of insanity he'd grown accustomed to seeing.

"Oh, you're awake! Wonderful!" Scooping up the board at the end of the bed, she continued to aim a beaming smile in his general direction as she ran down whatever the clipboard's paperwork said, and then looked back at him. "Considering where the report said you were found, you're in remarkably good condition. If you'll come with me, we'll get you some clothes and pass you on to someone to take you on a tour."

Orion blinked, slowly, at this. His voice was harsh from disuse as he coughed, cleared his throat, and spoke. "...Tour of what?" The look he aimed at the orderly explained the rest of the questions he wanted to ask, such as, 'Where am I? Who are you? And what's going on?'

"Oh! That's right... You've been unconcious since you were rescued, haven't you?" The orderly gave him an apologetic look. "A few weeks ago, you were brought in with a lot of other rescued captives. The team that found you told us you were strapped onto a table with half a dozen needles embedded in your veins, out cold from whatever was being done to you. They brought you back here to Knothole2, and you've been in the trauma ward since then. If you're feeling up to it, we can check you out and turn you over to someone willing to give you a tour of the place. We'd ordinarily keep you a day or so more, but..." she paused, and looked sheepish. "...We really need the bed freed up."

For a moment, Orion gave her a flat look, not quite sure how to react - then, with a silent inner shrug, he slowly shifted around on the bed, and lifted himself to his feet - at 6'5", he was unusually tall for a human, and the months spent in the torture equipment of the labs had burned away what body fat he had, and the lack of anything else to occupy him had left him in better shape than he'd ever been before in his life. The only things detracting from the rugged, fit image were the scars criss-crossing his body and the ridiculous hospital gown - exactly like the hospital gowns of his world, down to the funny blue-green color and the open backs. "...Lead on, then." Having the gown open didn't bother him - his modesty had been the first thing to go, as a captive.

About twenty minutes later, he looked his clothing over with a halfway amused expression. A dark blue T-shirt, blue jeans, and a pair of sandals that they'd dug up from somewhere made him halfway presentable, and his hair, by now halfway down his back, had been neatly trimmed by the orderly before she released him into the care of a young man who introduced himself as Micheal Angeles.

"So, you're the guy they rescued from the torture chamber, huh? Bet you're glad to be out of there. Anyway, if you wanna follow me, I'll show you all the important spots, then take you to see somebody who can help you get set up with a place to live and a job of some kind." Micheal was one of those incredibly nondescript people who could fade into a crowd without any trouble, with plain brown hair and equally plain brown eyes, strictly average in height and build, and with easily forgettable features.

"...Eh." Orion shrugged, not bothering to form a real reply as he took in the scenery. He felt oddly out of place in real clothing again, without the familiar weight of the shackles on his arms and wrists, out in the clean-smelling air of this place. He absently rubbed at the pale band of scar tissue around his wrist, feeling the difference between the scar and the rest of his skin. "...So what, exactly, is Knothole2?"

Micheal gave the taller man a glance from the side before answering. "The headquarters for a resistance movement, commanded by Neo Queen Selenity Tsukino. It's not much, as far as cities and armies go, but we're really the only hope to stop Lasarius and his soldiers from taking over the entire multiverse. While not all of us are warriors, we all help the effort in some way."

"...I see. And if someone who gets rescued doesn't want to help?"

"We let them go home. Lasarius might capture them again, of course, and most of them want to fight, since they know first-hand what the other side's capable of. We've got some weird groups working together here..." Micheal glanced sideways, and shook his head with a grin. "Of course, you probably wouldn't recognize any of them - as far as I know, there're only a couple of people in the entire army who know about more than their own universe." A slight, dark smirk crept onto Orion's face, but he remained silent. "Anyway, up ahead is the shooting range. We'll swing through there, then I'll show you the rest of the place."

Three hours later found Orion in the presence of one of the apparent leaders of the resistance force, a short young woman, almost childlike in appearance, by the name of Donna. Despite being only a little over five feet in height and seeming almost like a child, there was something to her that forced Orion to stifle a grim smile - something told him that she was far more than she seemed, and that her childlike appearance hid a rather strong spirit.

Donna's POV:

It's been a full six weeks since the 'Battle of the Fair', as it's now being called by the various people. Jen and I were titled soon after that battle as Selenity's 'Generals'. I'm not quite sure how or why the title was needed. I suppose I shouldn't complain about it, though.

Rikku, of the Final Fantasy X group, had become quite active since the Battle. If I am Selenity's General, Rikku seems to be my lieutenant.

In an update on everyone else: Lulu is, indeed, pregnant. It's somewhat early in the pregnancy, but it's allready obvious that the unborn fetus is not completely human. Despite the black and white scans, pointed canine/feline ears and a rope-like tail are visible on the child.

Kimahri locked himself in his quarters/room once he found out. He hasn't come out for anything other than food for a month, now. Lulu cries every night, or so I've been told. I believe this may be why Rikku has been so active; Anger, determination and hatred for the ones to put her friends through so much pain.

Filia had a miscarriage days after the Battle. After finding that other babies (we counted four infants) had her DNA, she had an emotional breakdown. Lost the child that she had been impregnated with.

Mighty remembered what happened during his captivity. In the worst possible of ways. Woke up screaming one morning a week and a half ago. He was very shaken up, but refused to tell anyone exactly what had happened. He actually found a therapist here in Knothole2. I feel badly for him; He is only sixteen.

With my new title, many of my responsibilities have been made stronger. New responsibilities had even emerged. I was, at this moment, discussing a few of the going-ons with my self-appointed lieutenant and another who tended to show up at the strangest places.

"The mobian echidnas we rescued at the Battle of the Fair have finally opened up. Some of them, anyway. Some terrible things happened to them, General." Rikku stated.

"They spoke of a traitor, of one who crossed into enemy lines during captivity." The mettallic grateing voice of Dinobot II informed me. Despite that the skeletal veloceraptor robot was technically labeled as a 'villian', he was quite beneficial to our cause.

"One who crossed into enemy lines? Which one?" I asked the pair.

"They say that his name was Locke, father to Knuckles." Dinobot replied.

"Yeah, Athair told me that they took Locke away once and, when he was brought back, he was walking with Lasarius's troops willingly. Tobor even told me that Locke personally tortured them."

I frowned at Rikku's words. "Locke was fiercely loyal to the Brotherhood of Guardians. Something big must have been done to turn him."

"It does not surprise me in the least. Does our enemy not have countless torture devices? Even without, Lasarius' recent alliances would have helped to turn even the strongest will. Psychic and technological mind controll, brain washing, reprogramming, even the Yeerks."

I stared at Dinobot, mildly impressed at his words. He's been paying attention. "Very good points, Dinobot. Which brings us to--"

A new voice cut me off. "General Kunz?"

I looked to the doorway. Two people, one familliar and one not, stood there. "Nurse Joy, er.." I looked at the numbered sticker on the Joy's apron. "..Four? What's wrong?"

She smiled sweetly, gesturing to the man at her side. "This is Orion, one of the ones rescued during the battle six weeks ago. He woke up a few hours ago." She paused for a moment. "He was held, at one point, with Guardian Knuckles' familly."

I nodded in understanding, looking to Rikku and Dinobot. "We'll continue this discussion later. Dismissed."

Both saluted and walked away. I'll never get used to that.

Looking back to the new man, Orion, holding out my hand for a handshake. "I'm General Donna Kunz." I smiled. "Welcome to Knothole2."

Third-person: Orion

For a moment, Orion regarded the young woman with a carefully neutral expression; at first glance, he almost suspected this to be a joke of some sort - she was younger than him, clearly, and almost tiny compared against his scar-crossed mass. A closer look, though, revealed small signs that it wasn't a joke - the confident stance Donna took, for one, and the fact that a Transformer - one of the 'evil' ones, by the looks of it - had saluted her.

Still, he paused for a moment before actually shaking hands with her. "...Thank you." He held the handshake for a moment, letting himself savor the feel of a living person's hand without any need to hide behind his telepathic barriers, and then took a step back, releasing her hand. "It seems a bit... Strange, not to be wearing shackles of some kind."

Donna frowned at him for a moment, before smiling slightly. "You'll have to get used to it. If I have any say in it, you'll never have to wear shackles again." She paused, and gave him a questioning look. "Has anyone told you about Knothole2, yet, and of anything going on?"

Orion shook his head slightly. "No - I've been awake for all of about two and a half hours. Most of that was spent finding clothing that fit and getting something to eat." He grinned slightly, and continued in a dry tone of voice, "I would guess, however, from what I've seen that it's a resistance army against Genereux's boss, with troops drawn from just about any universe that has nonhumans... Although I have to admit finding 'evil' Transformers in the group leaves me a bit puzzled..."

Donna laughed a little at that statement. "It was just as interesting for even me when they first came here. Even more curious, they follow my orders." Her expression shifted back into a smile; an idle corner of Orion's mind speculated if that was her natural expression, or if it was a front she felt she had to keep up.

"Mmm... You must be a unique person, then. Even on my best days I doubt I could get them to follow my orders..." Orion sighed. "Anyhow... I'm sure you have questions for me... There someplace where I could sit? Being unconscious in bed for a month and a half doesn't do much for stamina, unfortunately."

Donna smiled slightly wider, a humerous expression, and pointed to a nearby chair. The smile slipped for a brief moment as she thought about how to put her first question into words. Finally, she settled for the simple and direct approach. "What happened to them?"

Orion lowered himself into the chair before answering, sighing slightly - after a year of torment, the chair seemed almost impossibly comfortable. "...I'm guessing that by 'them' you mean the Brotherhood." He paused again, and sighed - wearily, this time. "The short answer is torture. Torture in the most extreme ways I've ever seen, to be honest. It varied... Sometimes, it was electroshock - needles implanted in the nerve clusters and then used to conduct electrical charges. Sometimes it was psychological - they had sensory deprivation tanks, and virtual reality tanks. Also... There was a telepath working for Genereux. She'd read out their worst fears and help the simtank technicians program a nightmare specifically tuned to the victim. It didn't work with me, thank Eris, but it was hell on them..."

"Then there was the guy Genereux had implanted." Orion tensed slightly as memories whipped across his mind's eye. "A mimetic implant, to be exact. Transfers someone else's nerve impulses to the body - leaves you completely aware of what your body's doing, though. It tends to drive the victim completely insane in a few weeks. I think his name was Locke - he was an echidna, at least. The others seemed terrified of him."

"It probably didn't help to have Foxfire around, though... He is - was, rather - from the same world as me. Knew all about the Brotherhood, since he was a Sonic fan, which threw all the echidnas off. He died after getting lost so far in his own little world that nothing translated through the right way. I hope he just got stuffed into the recycling bin again - I'd hate to have him roaming around as a ghost with him being as crazy as he was..."

Donna frowned, a strange expression on her face - a mixture of horror and determination, with a touch of realization. "Mimetic implant on Locke.. Thats why they thought he was a traitor.." She frowned further at the news of a telepath, eyes diverted to the side, yet seeming genuinely surprised. "A telepath? Odd. Lasarius classified them as Mutants, to be killed.." That idle corner of Orion's mind wondered who she was talking to - herself, him, or the Nurse who was still around? Looking back at Orion, her expression turned slightly sympathetic, "I'm sorry about the loss of your friend. Is there anything else that happened? Did they target any one specifically?"

A bitter smirk flashed across Orion's face. "Not so much a friend as someone I always end up running into each time around.... And none of them that I'm aware of, no. As for the mutants - there were a couple of psionically-active people working in the lab - and at least one other working for Lasarius..."

"There were a few other tortures - drug experiments, also. One that Genereux seemed fond of worked to amplify any pain felt - the Brotherhood were all regularly dosed with it towards the end of my time being locked up in the room with them." He pauses, as another memory prompts. "...Mmm. You might want to have the Brotherhood X-rayed, if you haven't already - I remember overhearing Genereux talking about implants made out of mithril..."

Donna stared at Orion with a deeply troubled expression. "Mithril?" She paused for a moment, the troubled expression becoming more pronounced. "Did you just say mithril?"

Slowly, Orion nodded in reply. "Yes, mithril. Which form of it, I don't know... But either way, if what Fox mentioned about the Brotherhood's powers is right, then any of them with the implants can't use their powers without electrocuting themselves..."

Donna continued to stare at Orion for a moment, the troubled expression still on her face. She looked over at Nurse Joy Four, who'd been standing there the entire time, a horrified expression on her own features. "Nurse, tell Selenity-sama to call a meeting now. If what Orion-san is saying is true, this could mean a load of crap has already gone down."

Donna's POV:

Neo Queen Selenity not only verified my worst fears, but amplified it ten fold. "Tayata Lasarius has made an alliance with Sauron."

It became so silent after this proclemation, a pindrop could have been heard.

I frowned, grumbling to myself, "Well, that would explain the Orcs.."

The relative silence was broken by Aragorn. "How is that possible? I would have thought that Lasarius would want destruction on those not of his kind."

"Unless they were to help further his goal." Selenity responded. "Keep this in mind, however; The One Ring is still safe here."

Aragorn found this reason enough to calm down, sitting back in his seat.

Selenity sighed once, frowning, and then turned to me. "General Kunz, I have been informed that one who was held captive with the Brotherhood of Guardians told you what happened to them."

I nodded, noticing Knuckles' eyes stareing at me from his seat. "Hai, Selenity-sama. From what I've been told, they've all been hurt very badly. I've also been told to conduct a few X-Rays on them, to check--"

A scream interrupted me. Loud, reverbrating throughout the room, but obviously came from outside. The voice was familliar. Very familliar.

"..Holy shit, Sharon." My younger sister was the one who screamed. I practically jumped out of my seat and ran out.

Several ran after me, just as concerned. Seems we forgot about protocol for the moment. I honastly didn't care.

My sister screamed. She never screams. Heck, I scream more than she does.

Sharon's POV:

I'm not sure who I barreled into as I ran out the door. All I know is that there was someone standing in my way, and both of us round up flying in the opposite direction.

I was slightly disoriented with my back on the floor, but quickly got up, eyes darting around fearfully. Flashes of nightmares, old and new, swarmed my mind.

Where was it?! Where?! RUN!!

"Sharon! Sis! Shit, calm down!" My sister's voice called from the doorway.

"Calm down?! Fuck that, D, there's a fucking BUG in here!!"

There was silence for a moment. Had this been anime, i'm positive that everyone's eyes would have been pinpoints. Blinking pinpoints.

I was practically hopping in place, searching for the millions of insects crawling all over the room that I was sure were here.

"..I am not a bug, thank you. I am a Mobian fireant. There is a difference."

I looked over to the voice from my dresser drawer. A six-inch-tall figure with four arms stood there, wearing a hat and jacket.

..What the hell?

The fears swam away as I was overcome by confusion. "..Wha?"

My sister sighed from the doorway, and whoever else was here grumbled and made their way out. My sister's voice, "Someone drag Auron off. I think he's unconscious."

Someone cursed, and the sound of something being dragged off. I continued to stare at the odd creature, who simply stared back. "..Huh?"

My sister walked over to my side. "Shar, you're nuts. You know that, right?" She then addressed the figure that confused me so much. "Archemedes, what did you do?"

"I teleported in. I honastly didn't think your sister would react like that. I only wanted to ask a few questions." The Archy replied.

Now I felt as if my eyes were pinpoints. I blinked twice. "..Huh? Wha?"

Donna stared at me. "..Don't go all Gourry on me, Shar. It's okay. It's only a--"

"A funny-looking people?" I interrupted her, in a high-pitched cute voice.

Both continued to stare at me. Donna was first to speak what was on both their minds: "..Riiiiight." She paused for a moment. "Archemedes, whatever you wanted to ask my sister, it may have to wait.. She's officially gone into insanity mode."

The Archy-thingie paused for a moment. "..Insanity mode? Should I even ask?"

"No. No, you shouldn't." My sister sighed.

I stood there for a moment. "..I like cheese." This is what happens when I get scared: I act insane. It's a good coverup.

Silence for a moment more.

"..All right, then." The Archy-thingie said again. A *poof* and some smoke later, and the thingie was gone.

I responded in kind: "..Uh?"

My sister patted my shoulder. "Very nice, Shar. I'm going to go back to the meeting, which was in progress till you screamed. I owe Selenity-sama an appology for that." She headed out.

I smiled slightly. Now, since that was over with, I can finish what I was doing before.

Heading to the mirror, I continued to fix my hair.

Jen's POV:

I stood atop a hillside. No, hill was too strong a word. It was just a mount of dirt, burnt trees around me with little plantlife left around. Dried blood was spilled upon the ground, dead people (no one in specific came to mind then) piled all around me. I squinted at the sky; it was tinted red, kind of like the ground was, almost like in a forever locked sunset. Would have been romantic if it wasn't so disturbing.

I brushed away some loose locks of brown hair. Well, sort of brown. It was stiff, sticky, and redder since the battle. I wiped away some of the blood on my cheek and licked it.

Hmm... salty...

It was quiet.

I held up my hand, folding it into a "pistol" shape with a sadistic smile.

"Bang," I said.

And the world exploded.

Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.

"I hope that's my alarm and not a heart-beeping thingy," I moaned, half asleep. I picked up my clock and peered at it. It was 10:14 A.M. Where are your children?

I sat up and hopped out of bed. Got dressed. Time for breakfast! WHEEE!

It was a normal morning. Normal as you can get when you're stuck in the middle of a war with too many people as your "men" since you're a general who's also 17-years-old.

You know, I try my best to get along with everyone here. I actually do a keen job. Either you think I'm a psycho, too happy, or just real friendly. I'm the type of person where you think Hey, if she was cold-heartedly serious, then it's the Apocalypse.

Then there's that one person you despise for really no good reason at all.

I bumped into Ken Ichijouji, my tray going flying and landing into Trowa Barton's hair (HAH! regroom that!!) as I mentally waved good-bye to my pancakes, french toast, bacon, eggs, milk, and orange juice. It's going to need a funeral later...

Ken's tray ended up onto our shoes, in which I also mentally waved good-bye to my nice pair of boots I just got three years ago. (I don't really have that many pairs. Actually, I think this was my only pair; curse it)

"Nice one," I said with deep sarcasm. "So the athlete's got some clumsiness, too?"

"I noticed yours had a graceful leap, but a rough landing," Ken replied smoothly. "No, wait. I'm not going to fight with you..." He picked up his tray and quietly went to get someone to clean up the mess, but I managed to nab him by the arm.

"I don't really like leaving a fight to a draw," I noted to him, recalling to one of my fanfics having used that line. I smiled a little. I don't really think I smiled all that nicely since he flinched. I don't like to be mean, but... I don't know why, but my guts didn't agree with this kid.

"I don't feel like fighting at all!"

I kicked away some of the food on my boots, glaring at him a little. "Now that doesn't exactly sound like the Digimon Kaizer to me much, does it?"

Ken winced very noticeably. I hit him pretty hard with that name.

"Now, now children! We should be getting along like civilized people!" Vash the Stampede laughed, pulling both Ken and me apart. "No way to treat each other as team members, right?"

Normally, I'd be agreeing with Vash full heartedly and acting like his pupil or something, but I just decided to pull away from him and nod. I gave Ken a farewell glare and marched away from him.

I don't think Ken really liked me that much after I called him the Digimon Kazier. Figured I had to hit him where it hurt. I didn't even mean to. I don't like making people feel that bad. Sure, I tease people a lot, but I'm usually scared of hurting people's feelings. With him, though... I just blurted out the worst things before I could think about it.

Oh well. For some reason, I didn't really care...

Donna's POV:

On the way to the 'special' child day care which was built to care for the rescued infants, I heard laughter. Innocent child laughter from two or three little girls.

Normally, this wouldn't have seemed strange. However, considering it was eleven at night, when most of the children are asleep, it seemed odd.

Turning into the mini-ally between two buildings, I came accross the sight of, and I guessed correctly, three young girls. Five or six years old, it seemed. Looking over the trio was a man in a lab coat, seemingly in his early twenties.

I recognized one of the children right away. "Lilly?"

The blonde five year old girl looked to me, an innocent smile on her face. "Oh, hi, General!"

The other two girls and the adult looked to me, as well.

"You're one of the Generals?" The man seemed surprised. He must have recently arrived to not know about me, then.

I nodded, raising an eyebrow, amused. Why are people always surprised when they find out i'm a general?

..Probably because it even surprises me. Nonetheless..

The man surprised me when he suddenly hugged me. Tight hug, too. "Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you! You kept my little girl safe!"

I sputtered for a moment, somewhat shocked at the hug. "..Ah.. You're Lilly's father, then?"

He stopped the hug, and backed away a pace, suddenly embaressed for the show of affection. "Um, you can say that, I suppose."

Lilly/Bubbles actually flew over, hovering in the air. "He's the Professor!"

I paused, and stared at the man. Now that I looked it over, he did bear a strange resemblence to the two-dimensional drawings from the 'Powerpuff Girls' cartoon. I then looked over to the other two girls, knowing at once who they must have been.

Smiling as well as any adult talking to young children would, I bent slightly to look down at them. "You two must be Lilly's sisters, right?"

One girl, with red hair that nearly reached her feet, actually saluted to me and spoke in an as much of an authorative voice as a child that young could have. "Thank you very much for taking care of my sister, General Kunz! I appologize for any trouble she may have caused!"

Lilly actually pouted. "I didn't cause any trouble.." She looked to me with overly large eyes. "..Did I?"

I couldn't help but sweatdrop slightly, "No, of course not." I streightened up again, smiling again to the three children, then turned to their father. "It was a pleasure meeting you all. Now, if you'll excuse me.." I made my way out the ally.

Lilly was the only one who said anything as I departed.

"See you later!"

I headed into the 'special' day care. It was more of a twenty-four hour care, actually, considering none of the babies had real parents to care for them. The most unusual people were working to care for them.

As soon as I entered, the three currently careing for the children looked to me. I sweatdropped, not able to help the amused expression on my face. "You don't have to stop just because I'm here." All three went back to whatever they were doing. I headed over to the nearest caretaker, Sylphiel. "How is everyone holding up?"

The white mage smiled at me, holding what appeared to be a baby Mobian echidna with golden fur and small dragon-like wings, "Everything is fine so far, General." She paused. "However, something about a few of these children surprised me earlier today."

I looked at her questionably as she unbuttoned the cute little pink baby jacket that the child was wearing, revealing the infants' cheast. I stared at the design on the baby girl's (I assumed it was a baby girl, considering it was dressed in pink) fur.

A white crescent from the neckline, almost like a strange necklace.

"No way." Was all I could think of saying.

Sylphiel frowned. "Isn't this the same mark that Guardian Knuckles and his familly has? I believe he once mentioned that it was the mark of Guardian."

I nodded. "It is. There shouldn't be any possible way for this kid to have it." I looked to her. "How many babies have this on them?"

Sylphiel buttoned the little girl back in the jacket. "Four others. Three, like this little one, are mostly echidna. One is a human with fur."

I frowned, thinking. How could these children have Knuckles' mark? Knuckles was never held captive. His grandfathers were, but most of them are too old to have children.

..Most, but not all.

"Shit."

Sylphiel gave me a strange look. "Don't swear in front of the children."

I sweatdropped slightly, but quickly appologized anyway. I then turned, and headed out the door. I'll have Selenity call a meeting in the morning.

Third Person: Orion

After being more-or-less abandoned by both the nurse and by the General in the wake of his note of Lasarius having access to mithril, Orion found himself wandering by himself in a small park, half of his mind considering the last few hours, the other half keeping an eye on his surroundings.

The resistance was apparently managing, although how well was another matter entirely. The instincts lodged in the back of his mind whispered quietly, going over just what he'd seen so far - the hospital, the debriefing, and what little of the town he'd seen outside this park. That there was a park at all told him a great deal.

He caught himself as he nearly tripped over the tombstone set off to the side of the path he'd been following; stepping back, he kept his expression neutral as he knelt and looked it over. It was slate grey, surrounded by many layers of flowers, most of them well on their way to returning to the dirt they lay upon; new blossoms lay atop those, however, nested around a small wooden sculpture.

Brushing lightly at the flowers, he gave the sculpture of Hare a puzzled look - then looked up, and read the inscription on the stone. 'Life's thread too soon done; We will remember, though you are gone.'

A memorial, he realized. To a fallen member of the resistance. That piece of knowledge settled into place with the others, and he felt them all gradually begin to fit themselves together. A slight smile - the first real smile in over a year - crept onto his face as he drew himself to his feet. "I think I need to talk to whoever runs this place..."

"Look, I don't care if she's in a meeting. I need to talk to her. Let me in." Orion glared down at the two young women blocking his way; one clad in blue, the other in red, with black hair and a crow feather tied into it, neither one looked particularly imposing - aside from the furiously determined look on their faces.

"We'll let you in after she's done. If you try going in before that, you have to go through us." The blue one matched Orion's glare, giving him the impression of a fierce raven - or, perhaps, a crow - ready to attack him if he pushed her. The other one gave him a similar look, with a slight hint of defiance, as if daring him to try.

Inwardly, he smirked.

The doors to Selenity's quarters swung open, revealing Orion as he calmly walked into the room, looking around with a bit of curiosity. He gave the impression of supressed amusement - and for good reason. The two young women who'd tried stopping him from entering were braced against the floor, straining as hard as they could to hold him back - and having absolutely no visible effect.

The two people in the room - Selenity and Donna - stopped their discussion to stare at the sight as Orion stopped in the middle of the room and offered them a sarcastic grin.

"Sorry to barge in, but your guards here wanted to argue with me." Sheepishly, the two girls stood up, a bit embarassed at their utter failure to stop him. "I need to talk to you - there're things I know that I'm willing to bet that you don't."

There was a pause as Selenity and Donna both gave him odd looks, before Selenity sent the two guards - Sailors Deimos and Phobos, apparently - back to guard the door again. Another pause followed, broken as Selenity lifted an eyebrow at Orion curiously. "Well?"

Orion sighed, and sat on the floor near the doorway. "First - I can tell you about several of the experiments they're running on captives - some of them to improve their own troops, others to try and hurt your side. A big one of the latter is a drug that amplifies pain - Genereux was testing it on the Brotherhood a few months ago. If she's managed to work the 'bugs' out of it, they're probably ready to start producing it for regular use by now."

"And speaking of Genereux... I can give you the layout of a large part of the lab complex - and I can recognize more, if I go back in."

"What?" Selenity gave him a weird look, one that spoke of total disbelief. "You're willing to go back in there, after how long you were a captive?"

"Of course." A slight smirk flashed across Orion's face. "After all - I still have a score to settle with a telepath on their side. She tried getting into my head far too often for my tastes... And before you say that I'm the first or one of the few people willing to go back into someplace like that, I'd like to point out something..." He lifted his right arm, indicating the scars. "There're several kinds of people, when it comes to being tortured - those who snap like twigs in the face of a hurricane, those who resist like a mountain until they finally wear down and shatter into pieces, and those who seem to resist it fine up to the point that they finally can't take it any longer. And then... There're those handful of people such as myself. When the flames of torture leave others brittle and burnt, they just forge us into ever-stronger steel." He dropped his arm. "And before any of you wonder what kind of world produced me, don't - I'm from a Prime. My life before being captured is just as dull as any other Prime's life."

"You're from Earth Prime?" This seemed to startle and frighten both Selenity and Donna; Orion blinked at them for a moment, before the way they'd said it hit him.

"...I'm from one of them, yes." As startled shock faded into confusion, Orion bit back another slight smirk. "Let me guess... You all only know of a single Earth Prime, don't you?" At their nods, he let it slip out. "Figures. Most Prime worlds tend to draw in things near them... Lasarius was probably aiming to get to yours, but my world got in the way of his pet Worldwalker's gift."

"See, there is a single, central Earth Prime - but it casts off echoes, shadows of itself that have the same weird effect of creating alternate realities around them - they're weaker, with fewer worlds born from them than from the Earth Prime, but they're still Primes. They even have Prime echoes of their own - and those have echoes, and so on."

"Simple enough, ne?"

Donna stared at Orion, a strangely curious expression; it was a mix of shock and understanding. "Like a sort of ripple effect?" Was her query. She may have failed basic sciences in the typical school she once attended, but she does understand the basic concepts of multiple universes.

Orion shrugged, slightly. "In a sense, yeah. More like a waterfall effect - the splashes into smaller streams at Earth Prime, and into more, even smaller streams with each echo-Prime down the line. I'd guess my world is an echo of yours, if the pet Worldwalker Lasarius has got it instead of your world." He sighed, then, and shook his head slightly. "It's the basic effect, but I have trouble getting hold of it as much as I do - of all the people I can think of, Washuu's probably the only one who could completely get it. Her, and maybe Skuld..."

Donna let out a small 'hmm', as Selenity looked over at Orion, frowning. The queen asked the question first. "What, exactly, is a Worldwalker? You've referred to such a thing several times, now."

"It's a couple different things - for one, it's a psionic gift that has a couple odd effects - one, there's a natural grasp of mathematics so advanced that even Washuu would be confused by them, and two, there's the ability to step 'outside' of the world, and more-or-less walk to another one. The grasp of math lets them navigate the emptiness - hence the second meaning - Worldwalkers are pretty rare, thankfully, and they can't carry people with them - they could, however, carry a beacon, a gate generator, or things like that with them..." Orion shrugged again. "The one Lasarius has as a minion calls himself Gabriel. Hates nonhumans - he's a religious fanatic, as well; he's convinced humans are the Chosen Race. He said he had a brother who went to the side of 'evil'..."

Donna blinked several times at the last statement. "..A brother who went to our side, then? No one by the name of Gabriel has told me that they had a brother working for Lasarius." She paused. Then, seemingly forgetting the proper way to ask questions when in the Queen's presence, "Actually, do we even have anyone named Gabriel in the resistance?"

Selenity quickly gave Donna a strange look, an eyebrow raised, before looking back to Orion. "If we were to construct a team to infiltrate the laboratory, would you be willing to join them and aid them?"

"For one... The guy on Lasarius's side is Gabriel. I don't know who his brother is." His eyes narrowed slightly. "And of course - on one condition. I want to help with the team construction - I know what kind of people you'll need for this thing." He climbed to his feet, slowly. "And more than that, I know what kind of people you need to keep off it."

Donna raised a brow at Orion's final statement. "..Who to keep off of it?" A pause. Selenity actually had a wry grin, one of slight amusement. Of course, the Queen knew that there are some to keep off of ANY team.

Sharon's POV:

I stared at my sister for a moment, letting the words sink in. When it did, I jumped into the air and began to dance.

"Woohoo! I finally get to do something! It's about damn time!"

My sister stared at me as I did the little dance. "Somehow, I thought your reaction would be different."

"So, who am I leading?"

Donna coughed a bit, looking over a sheet of paper she held in her hand. "..Uh.." She sorta began. "A whole lot of odd people, actually. Nine others, including that new Orion guy that woke up yesterday." She paused. "You haven't met him yet, but he's an okay guy. Not chaotic in the least."

"..That sucks. We need more chaotic people." I fake-sulked. "Chaotic people rule, dude."

Donna gave me an odd stare at my sufer-dude imitation. "Zelgadiss is on the team as one of the long range fighters, if that makes you feel better."

"..He's not chaotic. He's a depressed rock."

"What's your definition of 'chaotic'?"

"Xelly-sama."

"Xellos is not on the team."

I sulked. "Aww.."

"Ryoko is, though. She's pretty damn chaotic."

"But.. But he's a poisonous talking frog!"

"Ryoko, not Rikuo!"

"Oops." I paused. "..Well, she's okay, then.. Who else am I leading?"

My sister winced. "You're gonna kill me for this one.. A chosen and a Digimon.."

"I don't even know who the hell they are."

"Koushiro, the really smart teen. He's even more technical than I am." She paused. "And Renamon. Renamon is just quiet and sneaky and can do a teleport thing."

"Hey, the talking evil dog thing?"

"…No, the talking fox woman."

"She's the evil dog thing that's constantly PMSing!"

"Don't say that in front of her. She'll kick your ass."

"Meh. Who else?"

"Cloud Strife, you know him. Zangulus.."

"Ah, Zangy-sama! …Can I have his hat?"

"No. Kiyone is there, but you know nearly nothing about her. To put it basically, she's a police woman with very good aim. Kurt's the last one on the team."

"Furry blue monkey!"

"..Nuh. Furry blue elf. There's a difference."

I did a little happy dance again. "Yaay, I'm leading a team!" I paused, then grinned. "..I'm hungry. I want chicken. Do we have chicken?"

Donna continued to give me a strange stare. "Go to the cafeteria, see if there's any left."

"Yaaay! Chicken!" I ran off. Too much sugar. Hehe.

Donna's POV:

I looked over the holographic words several times over with continued uneasiness. The list of the infiltration team members.

My little sister is actually leading a team. I worried, hoped that she would be fine, would do a good job.

Nine others on the team, Orion amongst them. I did not know Orion very well, only having a short time to meet and speak with him, but he seemed like a well enough guy. He seemed like the type that would watch for my sister.

Jen, Orion, Selenity and I deliberated for six hours to find just the right ones for the team. Orion said it from the start just which spots needed to be filled.

Team leader, hacker, two melee fighters, two long range fighters, three teleport-capable fighters, and the guide.

Sharon, Koushiro Izumi, Cloud Strife, Zangulus (last name unknown. Does he have a last name?), Zelgadiss Greywords, Kiyone, Kurt Wagner, Ryoko, Renamon, and Orion.

The group was to be sent out tomorrow, in the evening.

I prayed for their safety.

jeN's POv:

I think I have a problem.

No, seriously. I think I do. I keep feeling like I'm

F

A

L

L

I

N

G

and it HURts. Not my body. My heart. It's not a disease; hell, I haven't broken a single bone in my body. No, not exactly my heart. Sometimes I get a ache in my stomach like I feel like guilt, like I did something wrong. I know I was an ass to Ken the other day, but still...

Whatever it is, I don't think it's good...

And food, for once, doesn't solve it.

My hands hurt now... not hurt, wrong term. Like I can't move them they don't want to cooperate with me to write this entry.

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaccccccccccccccccchhhhhheeeeeeeeeee

MAke iT sTOp.

I think I'm seriously freaking out. Not seriously; isn't serious for me wrong? Isn't that NOT me? I'm supposed to be making you smile. That's my job. I don't get paid for it, but it makes me feel good. It makes everyone feel better because they aren't me.

its all my fault this happened hahahaha i am so WIIIIRRRRED it pulls and pulls and pulls

Ugh. This is making about as much sense as l33t talk. Or Lain.

Ever watch Lain? Really a show that makes you think. Utena the Movie was just something that you had to make sense if you were drunk off your ass, and the Yellow Submarine was something you had to make sense if you were stoned. Lain just made you think was all.

Now I'm thinking all over again.

What

is

wrong?

I DID IT ALL HA

HA

HA

HAhahAHAHaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Funny, I don't remember having salsa last night... or today...

Maybe I need a nap.

........................................................................................................................No.

No. That won't help. I think that'll make it worse. I'm a little afraid to sleep if I'm writing this. What'll my SUBCONSCIOUS do?

It started happening today. My stomach, my heart, and my head... it hurt, like a guilt trip, like my dad was going to open my progress report and I had to promise to get above a C+ 'cuz I KNOW I could do better.

Rambling. Sorry.

I was stumbling to the cafeteria. I thought I just needed food. Food makes everything better, right? That's always been in my mind. My cafeteria buddies always agreed with that, too.

I ran into Ken again.

Our trays clashed.

Dropped.

I ignored my stained boots.

And I picked my tray quietly.

And I hit him with it.

With no reason.

And I laughed in his face.

And I. Didn't. Care.

I'm sorry now. I wasn't just guilty because I made his friends mad (I love them all, really I do, not just Daisuke). I don't like to do anything without a good reason. I merely picked a fight with him the day before and insulted him. Today I just hit him with no good reason.

When I didn't feel sorry for what I did, I was grinning, still chuckling.

"We're the same and we're different. Oh, what a fucking paradox," I had said.

I don't know what made me say that. I don't know what made me do anything. So I just ran out of the cafeteria.

I didn't get to eat, in case you were wondering. If not... well... ah, anyway...

I felt lousy. I feel lousy.

I was sorry. I am sorry.

I hit my head a little on the wall. Argh; what was what is wrong with me?!

"Jennifer-san?" Amelia asked quietly. "Are you all right?"

"Wish I knew," I said honestly. I know what's wrong. Everything about me because

I MADE OUR LIVES HELL

ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

and i dont give a fuck

"Jennifer-san?"

I rubbed my forehead. "I could use some Tylonel. Look, um... 'Melia? I'm not feeling well. I'll see you later. If anyone happens to ask where I am, point 'em toward my room. If you hear crashes i'm probably not doing so well, okay?"

sure she replied

i left

and

i went to my room

whatiswrongwithmethepainthrobs

ha ha ha ha ha.

I think I'm literally insane.

because i did it all and

i

regret

nothiiiiiiiing

Donna's POV:

I was there when Jen hit Ken Ichijouji with the food tray. I stared, shocked, at the uncalled for violence. The first and second Digimon groups were all angry, stunned, shocked. Jen had never actually hit someone before, atleast no one that really did not deserve it (Lord Raptor being an example of one who does deserve a good whack every so often), and never before one of them.

"..What was that about?"

I looked back at the small white and green rabbit-like Digimon. Terriermon. Well, one of them. Wallace's partner, by the looks of it. Jenrya's Terriermon looks different, now.

However, that's a tale for another time. I frowned at the Digimon. "Not sure." I glanced to the door way a moment after Jennifer left. "I'll be back soon. I'm going to check on her."

"'Kay." He waved weakly as I dashed out.

Jen was no where to be seen. Amelia was, however, a somewhat confused expression on her face.

"Amelia? What happened?"

The princess-sorceress looked to me, concern and confusion easilly readable in her eyes. "Something is wrong with Jennifer-san." She frowned. "She said that she wasn't feeling well, and went to her hut. She seemed so.. Different."

I nodded. "She did seem a bit odd." This was troubling. "I'll have a talk with her later."

Amelia nodded, still appearing troubled, making her way to the cafeteria.

All I did was look towards Jen's hut, not sure how to approach this.

Third-Person: Orion

After finding an out-of-the-way spot in the park, Orion slumped to the ground and sighed, rubbing at the scar tissue on his wrists. Tomorrow evening, he was heading back into the labratory that he had, as far as his memory was concerned, escaped less than a day ago - with a team of people he didn't know, most of whom he'd never even heard of before. Cloud, Ryoko, and Kiyone he knew of - enough to know that Ryoko's personality might be a little bit of a problem. Beyond that, his only useful knowledge was how well he knew that hated lab by now.

He sighed again, and tipped his head back with another sigh, closing his eyes against the blue-tinted lights on the roof. He needed a weapon if he was going back in. He wouldn't be able to get the weapons he wanted in the short time before the return to the complex, but he needed something to carry when he went in, even if it was something as plain as a heavy metal bar.

Hearing footsteps approaching, he opened his eyes and turned to look. The creature, he noted with vague interest, resembled a distant cousin of the Klackons he'd seen in the depths of the lab; distant, in that the Klackons resembled giant humanoid ants, and this creature more resembled a ladybug.

Apparently, it was also talking to itself, since as it got closer, Orion caught it mumbling to itself in mid-sentence. "...elieve that they're making me stay behind. Who'll protect Koushiro-chan if I can't?" About that point, the creature - the Digimon named Tentomon, Orion guessed from what he'd picked up during the effort to build an infiltration team - noticed the rather large human man sitting along the side of the path and stopped suddenly. "Uhh... Hi."

Orion remained silent for a moment, looking Tentomon over. "...You're the partner of Koushiro?"

"Yeah. Who're you?"

"One of the others on the team with him. Orion." Tentomon blinked at him a few times; he offered the Digimon a slight grin. "Don't worry too much. I know the entire lab's layout. His only job's gonna be to hack the codes for the blast doors - we've got others for if we get into trouble and have to fight it out with the guards."

"...Promise?"

"Indeed. If it'll make you feel better, I'll keep an eye on him."

"You will?" The Digimon paused. "But... I should be there to protect him!" As Orion gave him a look that was halfway between annoyance and bemusement, Tentomon sighed. "...I suppose I'll just have to hope he'll be all right."

"Mmm. Don't worry." Slowly, Orion got to his feet; a slight smirk flashed across his face when he saw Tentomon's expression - impossible to read, he was sure, to anyone who hadn't dealt with either Tentomon or the Klackons for a long while - register a kind of blank surprise as he rose to his full height. "...You know where I can get a weapon?"

"...Sure. Follow me."

"You have to be kidding." Orion regarded the weapon he'd been handed with the same blank surprise that Tentomon had shown when he stood up. "You're expecting me to carry this thing out for a mission where stealth is the key?" The weapon in question was one of the standard-issue Cresent Beam Rifles; as far as Orion was concerned, it was pointless. Not only did it look too small for him to use effectively, the decorative cresent moon images made it resemble a mobile target. "I don't suppose there's anything else?"

"Well... I could try and find some of the old, discarded weapons of some of the troops."

"Anything would work better than that."

"I'll look..."

"...It's better than that rifle, at least." Orion tested the balance of the hammer he held, giving it a few experimental swings. It wasn't the world's best weapon, but it'd let him put his strength to good use. He thrust it through the belt of the clothing he'd been given, and bowed. "Thanks."

"No problem..."

Donna's POV:

I decided not to approach Jen about her behavior. If something was truely wrong, I'm confident that she would let me know about it. Otherwise, it's probably as simple as a bad day and that she needed to be alone.

At least, I hoped that was the case.

The following morning came, the day my sister would be leading the infiltration team into enemy territory. We were, currently, at Yet Another Meeting, one that I prompted Selenity to call.

Even Selenity herself seemed confused as to why I called the meeting.

For once, I was at the podium instead of Selenity. "As you all know, the infant Ex-Twelves rescued during the Battle of the Fair vary in parentage, bloodlines forcefully taken from our own allies. Mainly, Mighty Armadillo and Filia Ul Copt are now unwilling parents."

Line Inverse and Knuckles Echidna seemed angrier than anyone else at Lasarius's forces.

"However, in checkups and blood samples taken from the infants, something even more troubling -- and possibly even more damaging -- to our side has been found out."

It was completely silent in the room. No one said a word. Nothing made a sound. I found myself looking to Knuckles as I made the announcement.

"A number of the children have Floating Island Guardian blood in them."

A woosh of sudden chatter between various leaders followed the last words. Most looked confused, not understanding how this could be more damaging than what was done to Mighty and Filia.

Knuckles had a horrified expression on his face as he stared, almost blankly, into thin air.

I took the microphone again. "And after speaking with the Brotherhood of Guardians and a man who was held with them, we found that there was nothing scientific about it."

That opened the floodgate for shocked chatter. Some spoke louder than others, and I was able to hear their words.

"..Does she mean that they were forced to..?"

"..Oh, dear Primus.."

"..The same could happen to our friends.."

"..Fucking bastards.."

"..But, they're men.."

"..But, they're so old.."

"..Rape.."

A chair crashed violently to the ground. Knuckles ran out of the room.

None of us stopped him.

I was, for some reason, shocked to find Knuckles in the hospital's lobby. Julie-Su was with him, hugging him close and whispering something to him that I was not able to hear at my range.

Each wore a golden ring on their left index finger. They had gotten closer in the past month than they had in all the previous time combined.

Surprisingly, Knuckles seemed to be crying. Crying with an intense anguish that I've never seen in him before. As I walked closer to the pair, I found myself shocked again. Knuckles was actually babbling. I wasn't able to understand all of it through his sobs, but most of it was about his father.

I placed a hand on his red furred shoulder, gently, waiting a moment for him to look at me before speaking.

"You might want to talk to Sylphiel Nehls Rahda, of Lina Inverse's team. She lost her father, too."

Both echidnas were silent as I walked away, into the hospital.

Jenrya's Terriermon was waddling around in the hallway as I made my way towards my intended destination. He noticed me before I noticed him, waving his little arms to get my attention.

"Hey, General! How'r ya doing?" He was smiling, cheerfull, despite being dressed up in an adorable little greenish hospital gown. He looked like a plushie in that outfit.

"Oh, hey, Terriermon." I paused after my greeting. "Got bored in your room?"

He chuckled, shrugging slightly, his floppy right ear moving with the shrug. Terriermon then stopped, feeling the nearly smooth spot where the start of his left ear used to be.

The white fur there had only begun to grow where his ear had been amputated from.

I frowned. "Terr -- "

"Nah, I'm okay." The rabbit Digimon interrupted me. "It's just a little.. Weird, ya know?" He smiled, a forced one. Actually, he looked like he was about to cry.

"We could always give you a prosthetic one so you wouldn't be hampered in battle."

"Yeah, I allready decided on that. Can't let Jenrya go unprotected, right?" He forced a laugh, still smiling a facade. He then shrugged again, "The docs all said that I'm always gonna be half deaf, though."

I frowned more. "Terriermon, I'm sorry."

"You don't have to be sorry for anything. Heck, if it wasn't for you guys, I coulda been deleted!" He smiled. A true smile, this time. "You musta been on your way somewhere, so I'll see ya later, K'?"

I nodded, walking away, still frowning. "Okay.."

Just as I turned into a corridor down the hall, I looked back, just in time to see a single tear go down Terriermon's left cheek.

I headed into the room of Knuckles' grandfather, Sabre.

The brown-furred echidna, who appeared no older than thirty five years of age despite that he was actually sixty something years old, sat at a chair by the window, reading a book. He was wearing the standard greenish hospital gown and, almost cutely, fuzzy white slippers.

Sabre didn't notice me even as I walked in. Must have been a good book. I coughed.

He looked up then, and I noticed that his left eye was an odd shade of orange.

He must have noticed my stare then, shrugging helplessly, almost embaressed. "Contact lense. My vision is a bit shot in the left eye."

I only nodded at that. "How have you been, sir?" I was as polite as ever. I'm always like that with the elderly.

Sabre smiled, closing his book. "Better than I have been in a very long time, actually." He paused. "So, to what do I owe the honor of this visit, General?" I could tell that he was only being polite, and couldn't help but return the smile for a moment.

My smile quickly turned to a frown as I recalled why I was there.

Now, how do I go about this..

Sabre must have realised, to a degree, why I was hesitant. He frowned, concern suddenly on his face. "What? What's wrong?" The concern turned to alarm. "Is something wrong with one of the others?"

I shook my head, a bit sadly. "Not with the others. With you."

He was confused and worried, easilly readable on his expression. "What is it?"

I paused again, but still could not find the right words. "Locke isn't your only child."

Confusion. Then realisation. Then horror, eyes widening to twice the previous size. He blanched, complexion turning a few shades lighter.

"Oh, my.. I.." He seemed to be at a loss for words, actually slumping in his chair a little.

Now that I had said it, I couldn't stop. "There are two little girls in the special day care that, according to DNA and blood tests, are technically your daughters."

A choked sound came from Sabre as he began to tremble. He wasn't crying. Not yet, at any rate.

"Sabre, sir, what happened? Everyone is so afraid now that you were raped somehow and that the same can happen again.."

"That's just what it was." Sabre spoke as my voice began to trail off. "It was just as painfull, just as humiliating and degrading.. And I had no choice in the matter."

I slowly sat at a chair, looking at the brown echidna. "I'm right here if you want to tell me."

It was silent for a moment. Then, he began.

"It started three, perhaps four months ago.."

JEN'S P.O.V.:

I am now currently just staring at my ceiling as I lay in my bed, eye twitching...

I don't know what's wrong with me.

oh you silly girl everything is wrong with you

That's true, I guess... I can't think clearly. Everything that's happening... it's just so wrong.

and its YOUR fault you lousy annoying little girl you shrugged it off at first like it was NOTHING you

HA HA HA HA

are not ashamed of it you are proud of what youve done but you hide from it

BE PROUD little girl

WHErrrrrRRE is that pRIde noW

hUH?!?!?!?!????????????????????????????

What the fuck is wrong with my head?! It's like it's not even mine to think anymore!

aaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrggggggghhhhhhhh

realize your faults

and your future

and your wrongs

and take pride in it you stupid bitch

ithurtsdoesntit?

"Stop it! Let me think! LET ME THINK!" I snap suddenly, and I start holding my head.

but you are thinking

these are

your thoughts

RIGHT?

we are the same

i am not a voice

i am just

being

you

There's a knock on my door. A rather cheerful voice is heard, and I already know who it is. "Hey! Jen!" Duo Maxwell is heard on the otherside.

I don't respond.

TELL him to gO AWayyyyyy

Duo ends up opening the door anyway on his own. If I leave it unlocked, it usually means that I'm not having a private moment or anything.

"Um, what's goin' on?" Duo asks, rubbing the back of his head curiously.

"Wish I knew," I say honestly.

Duo actually frowns at me. "Okay, I don't know your personal life" of course he DOesn'T "but I know what you're like. What's wrong? You just don't go around hitting people like that."

"I don't know. Really I don't." I sigh. "I can't... think..."

i made this happen FEARRRRR me

HA HA HA HA hahahahaHA

"Think? Is that all that's bothering you?" Duo asks, raising a brow at me, like I'm insane hahaha idiot you are insane

shut uuuuuup

icantiamyouwecausedthiswediditwedidit

"No," I croak out. "I feel like shit." I flop my head back onto my pillow.

"You didn't even have breakfast. C'mon; you can tell me, right? Think of me as your personal confession stand!" Duo grins, but I honestly am not thrilled.

I sigh and turn to lay on my side. "I need a nap," I whine quietly.

Duo pauses. Is he thinking of something?

"Be right back!" the Gundam pilot tells me. "Don't go away. I have an idea who can help you!"

I blink. Who could possibly help because who wants me who would want to help a killer creator of such a thing i dont care what i did hee hee hee allllll myyyyy faaauulllt

Struggle, struggle, struggle...

It throbs and pulls and pulls and pulls at me.

What is it? What's making me feel like this?!

its all your stinking fault you stupid girl nobody wants yoooouuuu

ha ha ha ha

youre just an irritating little girl

because youre killing them all.

Why? How? What are you talking about?

fool you made it you created it you thought it was a game just like that stupid kid digimon kaizer my ass youre worse than him

I made it happen because I created Lasarius?

I figured it out tee hee good for you good for me look at what i did arrrrrggghhh all my fault all my fault

fault fault fault fault fault fault fault fault fault fault fault fault fault fault fault fault fault fault fault fault fault fault fault fault fault fault fault --

Flashing through my head like a computer virus with only one word flooding the screen!

all your fault

be proud have pride in it may as well because we are all good as dead because of you

you you yooooouuuu

"Jen? Yoo-hoo?" Duo snaps his fingers in front of my eyes.

I blink rapidly, barely tilting my head to look at him. "What?" I ask, a little miffed.

"You'll thank me later!" Duo tells me, beaming a little.

I don't even frown. I don't feel like anything. Everything's a blur. "For what?"

"If I can't help you do a confession, then someone you appreciate should be able to," Duo explains simply.

Confession?

If I confess, then everyone will HATE me.

doesnt matter we are all good as dead all my fault you jerk asshole bitch bastard

I just look at him tiredly.

Duo frowns a little, then turns around to whoever he went to get. "Okay, I don't know you that well, either, but at least try to get some kind of reaction out of her. Please? Pretty please? Pretty please with--"

"Yes, yes; I understand," an accented tone told him.

I love that voice. I love that Hispanic accent.

I tilt my head up a bit, sitting up as I do so. Well, well; Duo knows me pretty darn well. He went to get the only guy I even worshipped as a god, starting way back when I was thirteen. Rikuo Aulbath of the Darkstalkers.

Still... I don't even smile.

he doesnt even like you he will probably just do this as a favor than out of his own heart

they dont like you

theyll hate you more

you made their lives a living hellllllllllllll

FAULT FAULT FAULT FAULLLLLT!!!!!

I sigh and flop back onto my bed, frowning at the ceiling. "I don't feel like talking..."

I think I even surprised Rikuo there. "You always feel like talking, even if it's about nothing in particular. What's wrong?"

Does he sound worried?

why should he

HA HA HA HA you hurt them you hurt him you hurt her you hurt hurt hurt hurt

"Everything," I admit. "I already told Duo; I can't think..." I never did like admitting my real feelings. Actually, I never even like people worrying about me. I want people to be happy.

ha ha so much for that you killer

murderer

maimer

torturer

"Look... just don't tell Donna," I sigh. "With everything that's going on, I don't need her worrying about me."

Rikuo crosses his arms. "I think she already is."

Shit. Shit. SHIT.

I don't want her involved with ME now. Donna already has hundreds of people to be concerned about. She does a lot more than I do in helping people. I just smile and try to make people hanging around feel better. She actually goes to SEEK out people to help them.

all you did was make a killer which in fact makes you a killer

which means you killed hare made the rebels miserable

KILLER

YOU FUCKING BASTARD!!!!

"If you can't tell me the problem, then just tell me how you feel," Rikuo says.

I nod slowly. "Fair enough..." I sit up again, sighing shakily. "D-do you ever feel like you could have done something about this entire thing? ...No. Stupid question. It's not fair for me to ask you that. Um, let me try again... Do you think you ever could do something MORE? Like because you didn't realize your stupid mistake, you ended up costing a lot of people's lives, sanity, and so forth, so you feel like everything is your fault... I suck at describing my feelings. Sorry."

"No harm done!" Duo assures me. "Better that than nothing."

I almost smile at him.

Rikuo just nods a little. "I'm sure you've noticed. I've always felt like I could do something about every little problem in my life that's happened." His (very pretty; tee-hee) oceanic eyes falter a little. "I'm scared of even looking at a medical area because my older sister died at a hospital."

I nod a bit. "I know."

He looks a little startled. "Eh?"

"Sorry. Um... like, being your biggest fan and all, I know almost everything about you," I say with a little grin.

"She smiled! SCORE!" Duo pumps his fist in the air.

your fault

So what?

Your... fault...

So it is.

Rikuo continues. I think he knows I'm still depressed. "Then you know when Pyron arrived, my entire kingdom was destroyed. I thought I was the only one left, and because of that I always wonder if there was something that I could have done about it. Lament as I may about it, I must do what I can now, hm?"

Continue forth...

Don't feel bad...

Sound familiar?

SMILE.

So I smile. "Makes sense... but--"

Rikuo holds up a talon. "None of that; you're an odd girl. You're even scarier when you're sad. I'd prefer it if you stopped sitting around and go back to your old self."

"But I was laying around," I defend myself.

Fault fault fault--

Fuck off.

telling yourself to fuck off?

Yeah. So knock it off.

"You know what I mean," Rikuo grumbles a little.

I giggle just a little. "I'm kiddin'. Um..." I leap out of my bed and cling to Rikuo. "Thankyouthankyouthankyou Rikki-samaaaaaaa!"

"Gack," he gacks.

I don't stop clinging and wave to Duo. "Thanks to you, tooooo!"

I feel bad about creating Lasarius...

Really HORRIBLE. Fucking horrible.

But I can't sit around like some angsty person. I can feel bad, but other people need help. I may have caused this, but I'll try to make things right and make amends... It's my fault, but I gotta do something, right?

Did I ever tell you how much I love Rikuo? I think that's doubled today.

Third-Person: Orion

Several hours had passed since Orion had parted ways with Tentomon, and now he found himself in the depths of the park once more, this time in a patch of tall grass; tall enough that when he sat down, he became pretty much invisible. Perfect, for the moment - someplace peaceful where he could be alone. He needed to be alone, desperately, to try and sort through things now that his life had become something more than an endless cycle of torment.

Three years ago, he'd been nothing special - merely a somewhat peculiar guy from a Prime version of Earth. The only thing that had made him different from the rest of the masses had been hidden away inside his skull - an array of memories that stretched back farther than he cared to think about. It hadn't been something he'd advertised, although a few times it had saved his life.

Two years ago, the situation had changed dramatically. He'd been in Las Vegas when he saw something that one rarely saw in Prime worlds - a Gate between dimensions. It had spit out orderly lines of soldiers, all armed with advanced equipment, and they'd taken the city captive; presumably they'd taken over the entire world, but he'd never found out - he'd had the bad luck to be near the Gate when it opened, and had been captured within minutes, shipped back through the portal to be stuffed into a prison camp. He'd spent a year there, gradually burning away the fatty layer civilized life had given him, and building up his strength - until the day a guard had managed to push him a little too far, and had his head caved in for his efforts.

That had been about a year before. They'd shipped him off to Genereux's lab, after a brutal whipping had proven to be ineffective - a strange quirk of his nervous system had kept him from feeling the pain of the lash biting in. There he'd been treated to an array of torture that had gradually chipped away at what sanity and civilized beliefs had been left after the prison camp; the torment had burned away the softness, leaving only the cold, hard core of his being. Already half-mad, he hadn't taken long to completely lose his mind - but then had reclaimed it, as the torture gradually drove him to rebuild himself, to reforge himself into something strong enough to take the pain without comment.

It had been that reforged Orion that had been rescued, unconcious, from an electrocution device near the nursery where the children had been found. He'd spent six weeks in a coma, as his body fought to heal itself and the last few fragments of his mind fitted themselves into the new pattern. Then he'd awoken, ready for any torture they could throw at him.

Only to find that he was free. That confused him; two years of being captive, and now he was free. In theory, at least - he doubted that Selenity's army would just let him go, if he wanted to leave, but then it was a moot point. He didn't want to leave - he wanted to help them fight.

He had a score to settle with Gabriel Angeles and his simpering little telepath Michelle. There were also other captives - nonhumans and humans alike. The Klackons, he knew, were being kept captive for a genetics program. The insect race was a perfect model to build loyal servants from, after all - hard-working, dedicated, and fearless.

He sighed as he leaned forward, resting his chin on a fist, the other dropping to grip the hammer at his side. Before long, he'd be guiding a small task force back into that bleak labratory, in hopes of freeing other prisoners from their fate - and perhaps in hopes of getting the chance to break Gabriel's head open with his warhammer.

Vengeance. More than justice, more than hope, more than freedom - vengeance was what he lived for, so long as Gabriel and Michelle drew breath.

Slowly, Orion climbed to his feet. Soon, it would be time to head out on the mission - and so, he supposed, it would be wise to go and find out exactly what equipment he'd have at his disposal. And to see if he could talk to any of the other team members - he knew too little of most of them to feel comfortable in a group with them. As he started to walk through the grass, he smiled slightly. Soon enough, he'd see the two enemy ESPers again - only this time, he wouldn't have any chains to hold him in place.

Donna's POV:

At a quarter past three, a couple hours after talking with Sabre Echidna, I found myself in the shooting range.

Most come to 'The Range' usually for one of two reasons: To practice their aim and/or long range attacks, or to release pent up anger. After Hare's death, Tiger came quite alot. I, myself, usually don't even come near The Range.

However, now, I was here. Here and shooting at multiple targets, blasting them with a maxed Bolt materia that I borrowed from Yuffie Kisaragi. Some prankster stuck crude drawings of Genereux' and Lasarius' faces on all of the targets. If anything, it only increased the number of shooters.

"Bolt Three!" I called out, feeling a grim sort of satisfaction as a Genereux target exploded into shrapnel. Splinters of wood and paper went everywhere.

"General? Are you all right?"

I looked to my side at the query, blinking twice at the girl who I called my friend at the start of the war, but now rarely see. Not that she wasn't around; We just keep missing each other some how. Clashing responsibilies, I think.

"Princess Usagi? Yes, yes, I'm fine." I paused, looked back to a target, "Bolt Three!" and then looked back to the pink-haired daughter of Selenity. "Why do you ask?"

Usagi, usually called ChibiUsagi, stared at me for a moment, a bemused expression on her face. "Well, you're never in The Range, really.. And you seem so angry." Probably referring to the rapid destruction of targets. "Is everything all right?"

I looked to the still-child with a small frown. "I just spoke with one of Knuckles' grandfathers. I'm sure that even you've heard the rumors that spread after this mornings' meeting." I looked back to the targets. "Bolt Three!"

Princess Usagi Tsukino frowned at my words. "..Are any of the rumors true?" She asked softly.

I paused. "..Yes. Quite a number of them are true."

Usagi said nothing, expression wide-eyed, shocked. Still silent, she turned and walked away.

I looked back to the targets. "Bolt Three!"

Renamon's POV:

They gave us two hours before we were to leave for whatever we wanted. I took the time to inform the others, Digimon and Tamers alike, of the situation.

In retrospect, I really shouldn't have told Hirokazu.

Hirokazu burst into laughter as soon as he saw me. "What happened to you?!"

I glared at the Tamer. "It was either this, or wear a leotard. Which would you have preferred?"

He continued to laugh. "But, dude, dying your fur black?"

Ruki glared at Hirokazu in anger. "Oh, will you stop?" She then looked to me, concern clearly evident in her eyes. "Be carefull, okay?"

I nodded to my Tamer, a smile in my eyes, hidden to all but her. "Oh course, Ruki."

The others all offered words similer to my Tamers', well wishes and words of luck. Most very kind, and I felt well with the upcoming mission, despite Hirokazu's words of, "Just come back in one piece, Kay?". Ruki glared at him quite alot that hour.

As I turned to leave nearly an hour later to the artillary room (we were all ordered to take one weapon of choice), I was surprised to feel someone grab me from around the waist from behind.

...No, not grab. Hug.

I don't know quite what I was expecting, yet I was still somewhat surprised to see little Suichun Lee hugging me. She was crying, as well.

I unlatched her small arms from my sides, turned, and bent to one knee so that we were eye level. "What's wrong, Suichun?"

The young Tamer sniffled. "Be cawfull, Wenamon! Tewiamon allweady got hurt! Don't get hurt, two!"

I paused, a bit surprised at her lisped words. Lopmon, her partner, looked sadly up at the child. I smiled with my eyes again, making it appear more apparent for sake of the young girl. "I'll be all right, Suichun."

"Pwomise?"

I chuckled lightly. I noticed Ruki smiling from a few feet away. "I promise."

Heading into the artillary room, mindfull of the strange glances I got along the way for my change in color, I came accross the Guide to our infiltration team. The human who awoke only a few days ago after a six week coma. Orion, I believe.

He had allready chosen his weapon quite some time ago. A war hammer, if I recalled correctly. Why he was in the artillary room still, I neither asked or cared.

Orion looked up at the sound of footsteps - or pawsteps, at the least. "...I see you decided to go with the dye job instead of the leotard." This observation made, he returned to what he had been doing - testing his strength with an inch-thick bar of steel, bending it into a half-circle, and then bending it straight again.

I stared at him for a moment. "Impressive." I did not respond to his words on my fur, instead commenting on the bending of the steel rod.

Looking around at the random weapons and firearms, impressed by a quite a number of them -- my eye caught sight of a rather interesting looking flamethrower, but decided against it -- I tried to decide which weapon to take.

A shrug was Orion's reply to my comment as he put the bar back, and hefted another thicker one - perhaps an inch and a half thick, this one. With a nearly silent snarl of effort, he bent this one, also, although it was clearly more difficult - and unbending it was nowhere near as easy as it had been for the thinner bar. "Doesn't matter if it's impressive. I need to find out just how strong I've gotten over the last two years." With a final snarl, this bar also straightened out. "Otherwise, if I flinch or get startled at the wrong time, I might hurt someone I didn't mean to."

I 'hmm'ed softly to myself at his words. "Reflexes?" I know as well as any seasoned warrior how terrible a misaimed reflex attack can go.

A nod, at that. "I've gotten a bit... Jumpy over the last year. Probably thanks to Genereux's pet telepath having a fascination with trying to crack my mind open." A third bar was tested, and then bent grudgingly inward; the effect on Orion outlined the bulk of muscle beneath his skin. "I already know that I could accidentally swat someone's head in."

"Hn." Was all I could think to reply, not able to help my eyes widen in slight alarm at his words.

Looking back to the weapons, my eyes caught sight of a weapon which immediently screamed out to me. My paw gripped the handle of long, thick leather rope. A whip. A very nice one, at that. Flicking it in the air once, I smiled. "..Interesting."

A glance over at the whipcrack, and a very slight grin. "Somehow..." He began to work on unbending the bar, "That weapon seems to suit you."

I couldn't help but smile lightly, cracking the whip in the air again. "..Hmm. Fairly nice range, easy to carry, inflicts painfull damage." I paused. "I'll bring this one with me." I held it for a moment, then looked back around at the shelf the whip was on a moment before. "Hmm. No belt or clip?" Perhaps I should have taken the leotard..

"Loop it around your shoulder. It'll stay well enough, with your fur to provide traction." The third bar was set down as well, and Orion twitched one eyebrow upward slightly. "How long do we have left?" He scooped up the warhammer, and shoved it through the black belt he wore, and then stretched, producing a series of snaps and pops from his joints that sounded as if he were breaking all of his limbs, rather than putting them back into joint.

I tried his suggestion with the whip, and it held in place. Not that uncomfortable, either. I couldn't help the slightly annoyed expression at his question. "Half an hour, perhaps." I offered the man a small eye smile before heading back out the door. "See you at the designated meeting point then, I suppose."

With that, I walked out.

Jen's POV:

Not much more time until the mission would begin, and I wasn't even part of it. I still felt very nervous. It felt like everything Lasarius would do would just indirectly be my fault. I understand perfectly that Donna helped create him, but if I hadn't even thought of him in the first place none of this would even have happened.

I can't sit around whining. I just gotta hope nothing happens. I can't be there to make sure...

Well, I could try sneaking out, but wouldn't that kinda ruin the plan? Besides, I don't think I even could. Rikki-sama and Duo have kinda had their eyes on me since our little chitchat, so I'd have to get by them first.

Guess I'm not in the right emotional state anyway...

I rubbed the back of my head, watching everyone get ready. Wish I could go, but then I guess I'd just want to go on every single mission. It'd be tiring, I might be able to do it, but I doubt I'd be permitted.

"Gambatte ne!" I told Kurt Wagner, sitting like a very observant child.

He kind of stared at me. "Vhat?"

"Good luck!" I translated, grinning like an idiot. "Sorry. A good chunk of people here speak Japanese. Habit." I bounced up and down a bit. "Come back in one piece, eh?" I bounded away, going around and wishing everyone good luck this and good luck that.

Then I got to Koushirou (yeah, I do spell it differently than D-chan), and I just kind of grinned awkwardly and gave him a thumbs-up. "Um... g'luck?"

He gave me a concerned expression. He was, after all, there when I kind of hit Ken (whom of which I have not apologized to as of yet). "Thanks."

"Look... um... the whole cafeteria thing... I'm sorry? Er, the last thing I need is the whole darned Chosen Children being mad at me for something stupid that I did. I haven't gotten around to talking to Ken yet, but--" I babbled.

Koushirou cut me off, "Don't apologize to me. I was just confused, and as you know you need to talk to Ken about it. Still, I was wondering what drove you to do that. I know your relations with Ken haven't exactly been all that strong..."

I thought about it.

I still don't know why I did it. As out of control as I was (and maybe still am) there was some kind of motivation, wasn't there? Lord Raptor is an easier excuse to hit and nobody even minds me hitting him, so why on Earth did I do that?

We're the same and we're different. Oh, what a fucking paradox, I had said to Ken.

What does that even mean...?

Ken thought it was a game when he became the Digimon Kaizer.

I thought it was fun to create Lasarius.

Ken didn't know...

I didn't know...

We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into.

I don't have my mother.

He doesn't have his brother.

Hoolllllyyyy shiiiiiit.

"I think I have a good idea of why now," I squeaked out. We're the same and we're different. Argh, argh, argh! No wonder we don't get along! Sames repel in most cases. Our situations are so similar that we're alike, but our personalities clash, too.

Ugh. No wonder...

"As long as you have it sorted out, you should be able to deal with it. You should probably talk with the whole team about it. I'm not sure where you can find Ken, but good luck at any rate," Koushirou said.

I nodded. "Sure. Um..."

"And I forgive you," he smiled a little. "You probably didn't mean it, but I just hope you have yourself sorted out now."

"Yay! Okay. See you, Koushirou-san!" I cheered, running off with a wave.

I just hope everyone will forgive me!

Ken's POV:

I'm still not all that sure what to think. I've never tried to make her mad at me. Not exactly a bright idea to make a general angry at you, right?

I'm well aware she doesn't like being called that. The position I'm sure she doesn't mind, but Jen apparently prefers to keep formalities low. It isn't very often she'll think someone is higher than her (although for some reason or other she considers the merman very important; I'm not sure why).

I still don't know why she...

I rubbed my bruised face a little with an ice pack. What did she mean when she said that?

I don't know what to think of Jen. She has picked fights before with me, but never actually did anything up until now. She typically shrugs off everything with a smile. It's like no one actually knows her.

I suppose that's why I prefer Donna-sama. You know who she is and what she's willing to do. She won't change at the drop of a hat. Jen is too unpredictable for me to know what to think of her.

"I don't know... what if she does it again?"

I look up, hearing Miyako talk outside of the door.

"She did say that she'd want us to be there in case she tried anything." Yamato.

Jyou, who had just given me a new icepack, opened the door and frowned a little. "What's going on?"

"Jen wants to talk to Ken, but what if she just totally freaks out?" Miyako replied, looking worried.

I looked up, thinking about it.

"Ken?" Wormmon looks up at me.

"Let her in, please," I request.

It's strange, actually. Jen apparently asked for permission to be let in rather than ordered to come in like a real general.

What's a real general, anyway? I honestly don't know... she really is a weird girl.

Jen grinned awkwardly at me. "Um... I came to apologize. To everyone, actually... I'm not much of a general. I don't even do much. D-chan does a better job than I do. She takes everyone and everything much more seriously anyway, so... ugh, I need to stop babbling."

"You were trying to say?" I prompted.

"This is reallllly hard for me to do. But I'm very very very very very sorry!" Jen bowed and... got to her knees?!

"...Nani?" I stared her, blinking dully. This was definitely odd.

"Hit me!" Jen pointed at her head.

"Wha...?! No!" I answered. I really wonder what is WRONG with her...

Jen peered at me. "Hit me! Or are you too good for me?" She grinned a little weirdly. "Ohhhh, I get it. The kaizer doesn't have the guts to--"

"Don't call me that!" I blurted out, hitting her across the face.

A pause.

"A-ano... gomen nasai," I quickly apologized.

Jen looked satisfied, though. "Now we're even! Thanks!" She stood up, beaming. "I really am sorry, though. There's really no excuse for what I did, but I feel better that you hit me back." She went to leave, but turned around to eye at me. "You hit like a girl!"

I flushed, and Jen ran out of there, as if expecting me to chase her out.

"She's really weird," Miyako commented, looking out the door after her. "She's almost like Daisuke." She paused, then wrinkled her nose. "Now that's a scary thought."

"I think she's completely different. She's one big enigma," I said, shrugging. "There's no way for anyone to think of her except for Donna-sama because she knows Jen. I get the feeling sometimes she isn't really that happy."

"You're kidding me. She laughs at almost anything. I haven't seen her serious once yet," Miyako replied. "I think she's crazy. Not bad. Just kind of looney."

"Maybe," I added quietly. "But I still don't know what to think, and that bothers me about her."

Sharon's POV:

Getting past the main guards outside of the lab was no problem. After all, it was pretty damn dark out, and each of us were either wearing black leotards (we looked like ninjas! Teehee!) or dyed their fur black. Or both. Kurt dyed his fur AND wore the ninja outfit. He said something about it being an interesting mix.

Er, anyway, we were sneaking into the base floor of the laboratory complex, me at the front. My weapon of choice was silent; not a gun, sword, or the typical weapon. I had (du du DUUU..) the Silence Claw. Double-handed claws that had a weird non-glowy aura. Don't ask me to explain it; It'll take far too long. Let's just leave it that it's a damn cool weapon. And, clipped to my belt, I had my trusty Dim Slicer; a neat little ninja-like sword that shoots.. Stuff.. Out of it. It looks like glowing nachos to me. Nachos that explode. Anywho..

Orion was at my side, pointing the way. God, that guy's tall. Six foot five, or somethin' like that. Geeze. Over a foot taller than me. Damn. I feel amazingly short.. ..Not that I'm not short. Anyway..

The first thing Orion did after getting inside was to find the nearest corner, and dart towards it. For someone that big, he ran more quietly than most people a third his size. "All right," When he spoke, he'd lowered his voice. "Down this hall maybe three hundred meters is the first blast door - up to that door, I don't remember much. Never got past it the few times I escaped my cell. Just past it, however, is a guard post. It's an electronically controlled door, so we need to hack it open, and hopefully take the guard down before he can sound an alarm."

"I'll kill 'em." I piped up, eager. Hell, yeah, I wanted to kill someone here. Literelly. Killing is fun!

The others stared at me. I actually shrugged, "What?"

Koushiro sighed. He actually sounded annoyed. Hmph. "I'll hack the door open."

Orion gave me a strange stare, then looked around the corner. I had the feeling he forced himself not to stare at me. "All right... Of what I know, we have two security cameras and a pair of infrared 'tripwires' in our way. We can either try to dodge the tripwires - which, unless I miss my guess, are what turn the cameras on - or we can destroy them... Need a sharpshooter if we want to destroy them, though."

I looked at my team for a moment. Am I the only one who realised what we had? "Uhm.. We have three teleport-capable people, here. Can't we just teleport streight past the tripwires?"

This got Orion to look back. "I suppose we could - though it'll be a bit hard for Koushiro to hack the door, given that one of the tripwire beams happens to be set right under the door's control panel." This was said, oddly enough, in a completely matter-of-fact tone of voice.

I couldn't help but chuckle. "Zelgadiss, you can raywing, right?"

Everyone paused for a moment. It didn't take long for everyone to get on my train of thought.

Hey, we have a flying rock and teleporters. What more do we need?

Orion simply shrugged, and sidestepped around the corner. "Okay... I suggest we move quickly. There's bound to be a patrol along soon."

I nodded to that, following him around the corner. The others followed our lead, and I looked back, suddenly serious. Life and death situations, and all. "Okay, Koushiro, can you type upside down? Or in a lying down position?"

Koushiro nodded quickly, "The latter would probably be most comfortable."

I grinned. An evil grin. "I hope you feel like being Batman." Turning to the others, "Zel, Ryoko, you get the idea on this plan?"

Both nodded. I grinned.

You know, it's an interesting sight: A chimera, a woman and a teen, all dressed as ninja peoples, flying in mid air to type at a console. Reminds me of Charlie's Angels.

The blast door opened as soon as Koushiro hit the last button, revealing a surprised guard behind it. The trio landed directly infront of the guard and, before the guard was able to hit the alarm, Ryoko knocked him out with a rather impressive punch. Ryoko then teleported back to us. With Kurt and Renamon using their own powers, the trio teleported us to right beyond the blast doors.

Apparently Orion didn't handle teleports very well; he looked just a little ill when he came across. "...Right." He shook his head, then looked down the hall; at several places it branched off into side corridors. "So give me a goal. You want the main prison cells, the cells for the experimental prisoners, or just the cells with the current 'favorite' torture victims?"

I stared at Orion, suddenly torn between three places that seriously needed a rescue team at. "Where are more prisoners being kept at? Better yet, who do you think needs more help?"

Orion returned the stare with a dead-level and almost ice-cold gaze. "The ones in the main cells have the most people, but they're mostly just kept waiting for their turn to join one of the other two groups. The experimental prisoners have the second largest number, and they get to be victimized in various ways - and the 'favorites' usually only have a handful - a dozen at most - but they pretty much spend all their time being tormented." He turned away, and drew the warhammer from his belt. "Personally, I'd try to rescue the experimental prisoners. The favorites... They're probably beyond any hope of helping."

I paused for a moment. The rest of the team watched, silent, waiting for the decision. "..Orion, which were you?"

"...I spent about nine months as one of the favorites. Along with the Brotherhood."

"Then we go for the favorites." I didn't really care how Orion responded to that, looking to my other allies as I made the order. Looking back to Orion, or rather up at him, "Which way is that?"

From what I saw, though, Orion's reaction to it was nothing more than a creak from the steel haft of his warhammer, as his hand tightened on it. "Straight ahead, and then the third hallway on the left. This section isn't heavily trapped - but keep an eye out, they've got guards patrolling every few minutes." He drew a deep breath, and then let it out in a slow sigh. "All right, let's go do this."

Even as we made our way through, our voices still hushed and my allies continuously looking around for said guards, "Any more blast doors to hack?"

"Several. The next one's about ten meters down the next hall." A brief pause, and then in a quieter, angrier voice, "And to our right, ladies and gentlemen, we can see why I'm willing to come back into this place - to save others from that kind of thing." On the right was a large one-way window, giving a rather nice view of what might have been, at one point, a nonhuman - being cut open by a pair of labratory technicians. It took me an instant and a cry, muffled as it was through the glass window, to realise that the creature was awake.

"Mein Gott.." Kurt actually paused. I quickly grabbed the teen Mutant, pulling him along.

"No stopping now, Kurt. Gotta keep moving." I said it to myself as much as anyone.

As we neared the blast door, we came accross a guard at the door, as well as a random patrol of three officers. Well.. Damn.

Zangulus and Cloud took care of the random patrol with their swords. The real issue was to keep the guard from hitting the alarm which, with some quick thinking and a rather impressive show of a whip and a teleport, Renamon managed to keep from happening.

Koushiro went to hacking the door down.

I looked to Orion, "What should we expect now?"

Orion sighed slightly, and resettled the warhammer in his grip. "This is where it gets a bit trickier. There're more guards, on the far side of the door, along with more tripwires and cameras - the patrols on the other side are usually in groups of four, and I can keep the tripwires from bothering us too much... More of the walls are going to be bulletproof windows into lab chambers, and there'll be some automatic defenses - mostly annoyances, since they don't want the prisoners on this side dead - the only thing you're good for then is raw material for the Machine." He paused, and snarled. "Genereux's pet telepath lives on that side, too."

I decided not to ask then what 'The Machine' was, assuming I would find out later. I looked back to the rest of the team members, "Kiyone, switch to your weapon of choice. Your gun is pretty useless from this point on." If anyone had not noticed, I was in full serious mode now.

Kiyone, the only one with a gun, nodded, putting her Galaxy Police standard weapon aside for what looked like a.. Water gun? I decided not to ask about that.

"Well, let's go."

Koushiro nodded, pressing the last key to open the blast door.

Expecting another guard (or even a whole lot of guards with pointed rifles), I was a bit surprised to find.. An empty hallway.

We all walked in slowly, expecting anything to happen at any time. The large corridor was fairly empty, large glass windows overlooking empty rooms on both walls.

"Something's not right." Renamon remarked tensely.

Silence for a second. Then, a loud bang.

We all whirled as one to look at one of the glass windows overlooking a bare room. I stared at the window for a moment. Another bang, and the glass vibrated.

"What in..?!" Ryoko nearly yelled, but instead loudly whispered, jumping back and hovering in the air.

A third bang, another vibration, as if a fist had pounded against the glass from the other side.

A strange smile flickered across Orion's face. "Well... Looks like they haven't caught everyone..." He placed his hand on the glass, right where the glass had apparently been struck. "Oy. Quiet down in there. We're trying to keep anyone else from joining you, and I'd appreciate it if you didn't give us away." Did he suddenly loose his mind?

"Ah.." Kurt began, probably thinking the same thing the rest of us was. "..Vhat's going on?"

"Orion? What is this?" Cloud asked, as well. "Is someone.. Or something.. In there?"

"Something... And someone." Orion stepped back from the glass; it distinctly failed to make any further noise. "Or at least, it used to be someone." He turned, and continued down the hallway. "A lot of people die down here. Some of them don't get to leave when they die."

Most of us kept walking, but Zelgadiss held back. I paused, looking back to the chimera, and so did everyone else after a moment.

"..They keep ghosts down here?" He paused, looking like he didn't believe what Orion had just said. He probably didn't. "Are you serious?"

Orion smirked slightly; the deeper into the lab he went, the more 'alive' he became - or maybe it was just the tension of the mission. "Keep them? No. That one's lucky. They haven't caught it yet." He didn't bother to explain, instead gesturing forward. "C'mon. And watch your step, there's another tripwire up here."

Orion really confuses me. I think he confused all of us. His words also horrified me, sent a chill down my back.

..Ghosts? Kept prisoner? Why is something at the back of my mind ringing with that thought? Possibly all the horror movies I used to watch, before the war. I'm pretty sure that there was a movie made where they kept ghosts prisoners in glass cages..

Renamon's POV:

Things became difficult.

We were stealthy walking through an empty corridor. The 'ghost inhabited' (as I honastly did not believe such things existed here) glass cages still were along the walls. Orion, our guide, suddenly stopped, causing the rest of us to pause as well.

"Not to worry anyone... But there's a telepath scanning the area. I advise running. Quickly. Before she can trigger the defense systems."

After a moment for this to digest in, we ran.

I heard a cry and a thud. Turning my head to look back, I noticed one of our long range fighters, Kiyone, drop to the ground. Blood covered her right leg. Three soldiers were at the far end of the corridor, guns in hand. She had been shot.

I ran back. I don't know exactly why I ran to help her, as she was really not a close friend of mine. Only an ally.

"Are you all right?" I attempted to help her back to her feet, to continue to run and catch up with the others. She stumbled and fell. Looking towards the others, I began to become worried. Only one, a melee fighter by the name of Cloud, had noticed that we were still here.

"Hold on!" Cloud called back. His call got the attention of the rest of the group. He took out what looked to be a crossbow of some sort, fired it, taking out the three guards who were running towards us.

Cloud had bent to pick up Kiyone, who seemed annoyed at the situation. I looked to the others, who had doubled back to get to us.

I heard loud clicks from beyond Kiyone and Cloud, so I turned back. More guards had just entered the corridor and were readying their weapons as they ran.

The thundering crash of a large metal object hitting a metal floor sounded a split millisecond before I felt the pain.

The pain.. It was terrible. I actually paused as my mind processed that it had come from my tail, which had been in the air untill the metal door came down behind me.

Slowly turning back, eyes now wide with that terrible physical pain.. The door had come down where my tail was. It had actually sliced off half of my tail. My own blood pooled on the floor.

A new pain, not nearly as great from that of my tail, hit my knees. I stumbled to the ground then, suddenly finding myself unable to teleport, as I realised that laserfire had hit my legs. The soldiers.

I was on my side, on the ground. Internally, I cursed at my own weakness. I should be stronger than this!

Cloud had taken out his sword, using it more as a shield than a weapon, as half a dozen guards came at us. I tried to stand, but found my knees to be unresponsive. Instead, I tried to push myself up with my arms. All I managed was a sitting position.

The guards stopped about ten feet from where Cloud guarded Kiyone, who was upon the floor herself. One of the guards, who seemed to be the leader, then spoke.

"Put your weapon down! Now!"

"Aw, shit.." I heard Cloud say. Cloud backed up a pace, still clutching his sword, still infront of Kiyone.

The guard shot at him. He fell, hopefully not too wounded, sword hitting the ground with a distinctive 'clink-clink'.

I was suddenly.. Afraid. I was injured to the point of uselessness, helpless. My knees were practically useless (no matter how much I tried to move them) and half my tail was gone. I've never been in such a situation before.

Two of the soldiers approached, probably to detain me. However, I was not done fighting.

"Wisteria Punch!" My attack hit one of them full in the face. He fell back, bleeding heavilly. Three other guards ran towards me, seeing that I was still able to fight, managing to drag me forward and pinning me to the ground. I struggled as much as possible. Nothing helped.

One soldier looked down, a smiling expression on his face I immediently did not like. "That was a stupid move, bitch."

Jenrya's POV:

We were in the cafeteria, eating and talking together like any other group of children would. 'We' being the Tamers and Chosen children, along with most of the Digimon.

Yamato had been in the middle of a story about something that happened to Taichi in their Digital World when Ruki collapsed to the floor with a sudden scream of pain.

I, along with quite a number of others, jumped out of my chair in surprise. I ran to her, bent down, and turned her on her back. "Ruki?! What happened?!"

She let out a second scream of pain, clutching at her knees. Unshed tears glittered in her eyes. stareing blankly into space. Something was seriously, seriously wrong. "..Renamon..?"

..Renamon was on the infiltration mission.

..The Tamer-Digimon link. Shimatta!

"Someone get a medic here now!" I heard Taichi call out.

I shook Ruki a little, "Ruki! Ruki, stay with us! Where does it hurt?"

She looked to me, but she still seemed a bit unfocused. "..Something's wrong with Renamon! It hurts!"

"What hurts?" I looked at Jyou, who had also bent down.

"My back, my knees.. Itai.." I was surprised at how much pain Ruki seemed to be in. Even during battles, we never felt the full pain of what our Digimon felt. What was happening to Renamon?

Jyou had liften Ruki's jeans untill the bare knees were visible. I winced at the sight of dark red marks. It looked as if there was blood underneath her skin.

"She's hemorraging at the knees. Someone get me a stretcher!" Jyou called. ..She was bleeding under the skin.

Ruki started to gag. I looked at her face with alarm, noting that the tears were no longer unshed. She coughed, half sobbing, gagging on nonexistant.. Something.

"Ruki! Ruki! Listen to my voice! There's nothing in your throat!" I tried to coax her into breathing again. Whatever was happening to Renamon seemed to be strong enough to happen to Ruki equeally.

She didn't seem to be able to hear me.

"Ruki!"

Third-Person: Orion

A snarl wrenched itself out of Orion's throat as the blastdoor slammed down almost in his face; he stopped his charge back down the hall by slamming his fist against the metal, and when he lowered his hand there were a set of crimson marks where his knuckles had hit and broken the skin. "...Damn it." He turned away from the door, and blocked Koushiro from the terminal "Don't bother. They can only open it, now, from the other side, and they won't until the telepath tells them we're not here anymore."

"So what now?" Ryoko wanted to know, as she hovered a few inches off the floor and looked ready to kill something.

"...That's up to our leader." Everyone turned their gaze to Sharon, waiting to see what her orders would be

Sharon gaped at the blast door for a moment, seemingly in shock. "..What the hell?!" She sputtered for a moment, unable to tear her gaze from the tailhalf on the floor, now surrounded by blood, where the door is. "..Holy shiiiiit.." Everyone followed her look, and there was a chorus of shocked and horrified noises.

None of them came from Orion; he stepped towards Sharon, laid one large hand on her shoulder, and shook her a bit. "Snap out of it." His eyes had shifted from a hazel-grey to a cold, icy hazel-blue somewhere in the last few minutes. "Standing here isn't going to help anyone. You're the leader; what do we do?"

Sharon stares at Orion for a moment, not comprehending the task for a brief millisecond. Her eyes then darted around, finally setting on the door Orion had said could not be hacked down. "Blast the door down. We need to keep moving, need to get OUT of here." Then, recalling the mission at hand, looked to Orion, "How far from the favorites are we?"

"Not far from the main cell, fortunately. And you can't blast that door down - it's designed to resist superpowered attacks that could level a normal prison. All the blastdoors down here are - they don't exactly keep Bob and Joe the Mundanes down in these labs, after all." For all the sarcasm implied by the words, Orion's voice held none of it. "Don't worry overly much - I know a couple of other ways to get in and out."

Sharon stares, again, at Orion. "..And those would be?"

Orion returns the stare levelly. "I'm not going to tell - not unless we happen to kill the telepath. She can't get inside my skull - the rest of you are fair game for her."

Sharon let out an exasperated sigh and waves her arms in the air to emphasize it. "Than what do we DO?!"

Orion quirks an eyebrow at Sharon. "...Rescue the prisoners?" He takes a step back. "I said that I wouldn't tell you, not that I wouldn't show one of the ways. I don't want Michelle being able to figure out how to stop us."

Sharon let out another sigh. "Okay, okay.." She paused. "You call the shots. I don't know where to go or what to do." In other words, she's passing the leadership role to the guide.

For a moment, the entire group stared; Orion developed a peculiar 'Who, me?' expression, and then straightened up. As he did so, he seemed to change somehow - some odd combination of the way he stood, his expression, and the like - and shoved his hair back. "All right, then..." His eyes had changed again, back to hazel-grey, but the cold feel was still present. "Everyone who has a range weapon, fan out across the hall - they know we're here, thanks to the telepath, so there's no point in trying to sneak around anymore. Anyone who doesn't have a ranged attack, fall back and keep behind unless we get to where you can fight."

Again, everyone stared; then Ryoko shifted to the side, and the others followed suit. When everyone was ready, Orion nodded. "All right - we need to go back to the main hallway, hang a left, and get to the next passage on the right side. Let's go!"

-------------------------

Nevermore22's Author Notes: Well, that's it for this chapter! Next chapter will also be a Round Robin, as it seems to work very well. ^^ Hey, anyone else wanna say anything?

Alba Aulbath's Author Notes: I'm blurbing. Blurb blurb blurb. Um... no. Seriously. I got special kicks when writing these parts. It's not to say that Jen is perfectly sane right now, but she's generally better than when she smacked around Ken and calling him names. I wanted to stick in some psychological problems as that is my specialty far more than physical, unlike my sidekick, Nevermore22/Cally_Kari_Shokka. *gets smacked for the sidekick bit* Um... at any rate, typically if I write something serious, it's going to be very chilling and very much a "thinking" piece. It's easy to do something physically, but it takes real talent for mental damage.

Nevermore22: ...Right. *stares at Alba* ..Thanks for reading! Please review! ^^