I woke up in a daze of pain. My whole body was on fire, and I whimpered pathetically. I lay still until it lessened a little, and then hauled myself into a sitting position. Opening my eyes made no difference, I was in total darkness. I listened, trying to discover anything that might signify someone else near me. Yes! Movement! I turned my head, working out where it was coming from.

“K-Kirin is that you?” A voice made me jump.

“Tsube?”

“Yeah, it’s me. I was pretty sure it was you, I thought you weren’t ever going to wake up!”

“Where are we?”

“No idea.”

“What about the others?”

“Kirin you’re awake!”

“Kirin!”

“Red, Neko?”

“Yeah.”

“Yup.”

I sat back, still scared but relieved that I wasn’t alone.

“Are you guys hurt?”

“I’m fine, couple of burns but only Shock Pellets, nothing worse.”

“Same”

“I fell down the roof-hatch, but I’m okay.”

“Are you guys the only ones here?”

“Don’t know I’m as much in the dark as you guys. Geddit? In the dark…”

“Neko…”

“Yeah?”

“Not the time.”

“Sorry Tsube” I laughed at them. But my mind was working on the problem of getting out of there. It would be useful if I could see though. A sudden light scorched my eyes, blinding me even more than the darkness. Squinting through the brightness I spotted a black shape approaching. I backed into the shadows, hitting a wall, fear welling in my mind like a volcano about to blow. Who was this person? Why were they here? I crawled forward, peering out through the bars of my cage, for I was indeed in a cage. There were in fact 2 people, not just one. The larger of the two was dragging the smaller one, who looked unconscious. It was shoved in a cage next to me, and the larger one strode away. I peered at it through the bars that separated us. The boy was badly hurt, deep cuts and bruises on his face and arms, and his clothes torn up. I gasped. Even so badly damaged, I knew that face.

“Kirin, what’s going on? What is it?” Red called from her cage.

“S…Sasuke” I breathed.