She tenderly opened her eyes, but she feared they would flake off. That's how everything felt, like her whole body was about to disintegrate. But why? Peeking through half open lids, she saw white, and only white. Where was she? Only a couple words could explain it properly. Sterile, white, clean. Innocent, lab coats, flaky. It was a weird environment and she just didn't understand.

She tried to move and a growled seeped out from her throat. She wasn't expecting that much pain. Gritting her teeth, she opened her eyes completely and sat up. With a jolt, she realized she was naked, and that her hair was pulled up behind her head in a ponytail. Her skin was very pink in some spots. She just couldn't control her curiosity, though she somehow felt as if she didn't want to know. Then she looked around.

She was in a white box, a white, goddamn box. With a window. It had a large, circular window, and she had laid on a kind of molded plastic bed. There was a step, which she descended, and then she was on the same level as the bubble window. She stood close to it, and with a quiet hiss, it opened for her. She walked through.

Another white room, this time with two clear doors on two walls, a 90° angle from each other. There was a white, streamlined, plastic table, with one white chair. A tall, clear vase was on the table, and there was one flower, a yellow sunflower. She was surprised it wasn't white, too. Beside the vase was some neatly folded clothing. She sighed. No show-your-butt doctor's office dresses. But this didn't seem like a doctor's office, anyway. Too nice. Too quiet.

She quietly adorned the clothing, being careful of the tender pink spots on her neck, waist, and elbow. It was just a simple, fashionable tee, and jeans that fit her nicely. She kind of wondered how, because she'd never seen the clothes before.

Habitually, she pushed a strand of her black hair behind her ear and sat down at the table to think for a minute about what she wanted to do. She also wanted to gather some clues so she could find out where she was, and how she'd got there. Apparently, she'd been in some sort of accident.

Her eyes drifted to the flower, and the clear glass tube it was in. She saw her reflection, and then, she could feel her heart stop. You could have pushed her over by blowing decently hard. She rose from the chair so jaggedly that she knocked it over, and her hands frantically reached for the tie that was holding back her hair. She ripped it out, and gasped. She looked at her hand and nearly fainted. A couple thin strands of hair were wrapping around the hair thing. Blonde hair. Even worse, white blond hair.

She gaped, her mouth was open and yet no sound came out. This wasn't some normal wake-up-with-bleached-hair scenario. She'd had white blonde hair all her life, but she just... hadn't let anyone know before. She hoped it was a private practice.

You see, as one who has not grown up in this society, you might have trouble understanding why she has been so careful about hair color over the years. It'd be trouble, hell yeah, so why? You're about to find out.

She felt the click of a door being opened behind her and closed her eyes, chest heaving. She knew who it was.

"98.9. Pretty good, wouldn't you say, Lucia?" She stood silently. She didn't want to turn around and look at him.

"Well don't just stand there and waste good blood!" she listened as he walked oh-so-quietly yet so obviously towards the table. He set the yellow plastic mug down and turned to look at her. Wearing a slightly stale expression, she stared at him. He stared back.

"It's been... awhile." He readjusted his white lab coat and ran a hand habitually through his brown, semi-short hair. She stared at him, biting the inside of her lip, but otherwise, not moving. Then, finally, after a minute's worth of tension and hate so thick you could have cut it with a knife, she spoke.

"You. Are. A. Bastard. A goddamn, fuck in the ass bastard. Go away, Hyde."

"Ooh, harsh!" He scooted the mug along the table, closer to her, and she watched it, slightly interested in spite of herself. The he leaned his rear against the white desk and continued. "I would have expected a lot more from you, Marsters. Or maybe I should rephrase that."

She glared daggers at him, daring him not to say it.

"Ms. Skrakûl, then." She grimaced visibly. Hyde smiled.

"How. Why?" she asked with just a hint of desperation.

"You know why."

"The bounty?"

"Ever the smart one. You make me so proud."

"And how did I... get like this?"

Slightly amused, he itched his face and smiled. "Well, what do you remember?"

"Don't play with me, Hyde."

"It's an honest question, I'm allowed to ask."

Their eyes leveled. "Fine. I remember..." she didn't try very hard, thinking nothing would come up, could come up, but then a memory struck her so hard that she stopped breathing. Her eyes could have popped out.

"I got blown up."

"That's the most of it, yeah."

She advanced on him, not meaning anything, but he stood back up, defensively. She grabbed a handful of white blonde hair by her ear and thrust it forward. "Who else knows?" she demanded.

"3 of my men and two doctors." she glared at him fiercely. "Don't worry, don't worry!" he laughed. I've had all but one of them put to sleep so that you can kill them yourself. I knew you'd want to. And I'm sure you're hungry, anyhow."

"And the other one?"

"He's insurance. Smart enough not to tell. He knows I'll skin him if he does, but if I die, for any reason, he's to deliver the news to a certain, quote, 'rich bastard'.

"No."

"Yeah, babe. Better believe it. If you don't want Howard to know, then don't kill me. It's that simple. Really."

"Why would you tell Howard? You hate him, if anything, just as much as me!"

"Not any more, Lucia. We... reached an agreement."

"The bounty?"

"The bounty." Lucia growled. "No no! Cool it, and let me finish. I told him you'd been... injured. And that you'd need some time to recover. Normal people don't heal as fast as us, you know."

"And you said this without revealing anything about-"

"Of course."

"How long have I-"

"Less than a week. Don't worry. You have at least 2 months before he expects you. You should be thanking me, I bought you some time."

Completely out of the blue and completely unexpected, she grabbed him by the throat and slammed him against the white table, which creaked under both his weight and hers.

"WHY, DAMNIT! WHY?!"

"Because, Lucia. I'm not really going to give you to him."

"What?!" she released him. "You're shitting me! $500,000,000,000, the highest bounty ever recorded, and you aren't going to accept it?!"

"Hell yeah, I'm taking the reward. But then I'm taking YOU back."

"I think you need to think that through just ONCE more, and maybe you'll figure out what's wrong..."

"Shuttup. I know what I'm doing. The trouble is, you don't."

"Well, for obviously reasons. I get blown up- by you, I'm guessing," Hyde nodded. "I regrow my whole body and hair within the space of a week, and now my nemesis tells me he's turning me over but not at the same time. This just doesn't fit..."

"Well, nothing does, Lucia. I mean, how does anythi-" *POW!*

"Oh, FUCK, Lucia! I knew you'd do that! Damnit, man, if you wanted to knock me out, at least do it properly! Now my head just really hurts..."

"Sorry, Hyde. I'm out of touch, you know?"

"Sure. Okay, well, goodnight, then." She picked up his head and slammed it down on the tile. Hyde's eyes slid shut, and even though a bit of blood was running down his nose, she knew he was alright. She wiped the blood from his face and onto the stark white table, and got to her feet.

"Good god, Hyde!" she said to his unconscious body. "How am I supposed to get out of here?!"

She knelt down by his body again and took two laser target shotguns from their holsters. Good, he knew which kind she liked. She noted that that was a good quality in a man, but then had images of little baby vampire children and shuddered. She undid his belt, fastened it around her own waist, put the guns in, and she was ready to go.