Full Circle (Razgriz x Candira)

A tall, lanky-looking man is seen running across a barren stretch of rocky desert. Well over six feet in height, his condition is very near the worst anyone could ever imagine. Scars, jagged lacerations, bruises and burns cover every bit of exposed skin; his body is horribly emaciated to the point that the ribs and some skull bones are almost completely visible through the skin. What muscle tone the man had was gone. The fact this man could keep moving in such shape is a miracle at best.

However, this man was running for a very good reason; he had a large pack of Beastmen tailing him and he was trying to get away. He managed to find cover behind a rock, and a chance for a quick breather. He then looked down at his hands; what looked like a pair of metal gauntlets covered them both. They were damaged beyond all means of repair; the spikes that protruded from the knuckles were bent and broken. The casing was practically destroyed, and the micro-detonator system in the wrist was fried. Which meant the man was absolutely defenseless. In spite of this, the man refused to give up. "They won't take me back, I won't let them." he assured himself in his head.

Just when he thought he'd caught a break, loud rumbling footsteps were picked up by his still hyper-sensitive ears. He shakily rose to his feet and peeked ever so slightly around the corner of the rock. Sure enough, five or six Beastmen piloting Gunmen were nearing his location. "Spread out and find him! Adiane will have our heads if we don't return him alive!" "Fuck" the man muttered internally; in his condition, he stood no chance against them.

He then tried to slowly creep away, but stepped on a fragile piece of sandstone, causing it to break with enough volume for the Beastmen to hear it. He knew he was done for, so he tried to make a break for it, only to be intercepted by a bull-headed Gunmen. "Found you" the Gunmen's mouth worded out before swinging its massive club into the man's body.

The man went flying hard into a rock face; this blow was enough to knock him out cold. His lifeless form slumped to the ground with an audible thud, causing the Gunmen to roar with victory. The largest Gunmen then shouted, "My brothers, on this day I declare victory! The eighty-plus of our brothers that fell to the hands of this creature shall be redeemed when we return him to Adiane!" One of the other Gunmen then picked the man's body up in his massive hand and said, "Let us return to base and present this...thing...to Adiane." Another then spoke, "Don't call him that around Adiane, unless you value your life." With that, the small pack began making its way back to Adiane's HQ for her to deal with their recaptured prisoner.

They'd seen the whole thing from Gurren Lagann. Simon, Kamina, and Yoko were all pissed. Outraged that beastmen would hunt a single human like that and then drag it away in broad daylight, the team was heading up a small group of gunmen to battle. In a matter of seconds, they were flying into the fray, Yoko climbing out of Gurren and unleashing Hell onto any unfortunate gunmen in her way. She managed to shoot the hands off of the gunman that held the strange, tortured man hostage, firing shot after shot to give herself cover. Kamina and the others pretty much took care of her, however, as she found the man and protected him as best she could until she could get help.

"Hang in there, stranger. We'll get you help, so don't die on me today, got it?" And she continued to fire off shots, her large breasts bouncing as she hit critical points on several gunmen. It was only a matter of time before the battle was over and Gurren Lagann was victorious. The battle over, people began to gather around the injured man Yoko had been protecting.

The man's body dropped onto the ground when Yoko shot off the hands of the Gunmen holding him. The Gunmen tried to counter-attack, but they stood no chance against the superior Gurren and Lagann. Kamina in particular was especially brutal against the Beastmen; he hated them to his very core. Simon too seemed more confident than usual as he used the Giga Drill attack against the the last remaining Gunman. In what seemed like mere seconds, the battle was over and the group cheered in victory. At least until they saw the unconscious tortured figure laying spread-eagle on the ground.

Kamina and Simon both exited their Gunmen and went in to examine the stranger. It was here they realized the full gravity of the man's condition. Many of the lacerations on the man's body had crusted over heavily, indicating that he had gone without proper medical treatment for at least a couple of months. The fact that the bones were visible through his skin was the final piece of evidence that this man had gone without any friendly support for an extended period of time.

There were small murmurs as Kamina put two fingers to the man's jugular. He was surprised to find a pulse, albeit a very weak one. "Is he....." Simon asked, fearful of what Kamina might be about to say. Kamina shook his head, "No, he's alive. But just barely. Poor guy looks like a living skeleton, he must have been on the run for a couple of months at least. By himself too, from the looks of it." Simon then removed the man's strange-looking gauntlets to reveal long, horribly pale skeletal fingers; this only served to confirm Kamina's observation that this man had been pushed to the brink of death. "Oh God" Simon whispered. Kamina couldn't help but grimace angrily as he stood up,"No one deserves this. This guy, he was on definitely on the run for a long time. He was hunted like an animal. " Simon then spoke up,"Kamina, I don't get it. I thought the Beastmen only killed humans, not hunt them down."

Kamina then stood up and shook his head, "I don't get it either. But that's not important right now. Simon, take the rest of the team and see if any of the Gunmen can be salvaged. Yoko, help me get this guy to Gurren. We need to take him with us and see he gets proper care. Otherwise, he won't last much longer. Hope you don't mind being a bit cramped." The guy was big, but nothing he and Yoko couldn't handle. While Simon took the others to liberate the dead Beastmen of their mechs, Kamina carefully puts his hands under the guy's shoulders and lifted him off the ground.

As he and Yoko made their way back with their new charge in tow, Kamina then asked, "So, Yoko, what's your take on this guy? He must have something important if the Beastmen were trying to capture him alive."

The redhead holstered her rifle and then helped Kamina deal with the survivor. She'd been so shocked at the state of him that she had to take a moment before she could deal with it. "The poor guy is either really special, or horribly unlucky. Maybe he did something to them or stole something, but I don't know..."

She helped Kamina hoist him into the cockpit of Gurren. "I don't mind being a little cramped if it means this guy can have a little peace," she said with a frown. "I don't want to imagine what he went through out there on his own..."

She remembered for a moment when Littner had come above ground to carve a living into the arid surface. It had been very difficult at first. Many people died and others disappeared. He looked like the kind who'd disappeared. Compassion flared up inside of her and she climbed in the cockpit as well, holding their rescued friend to give him a bit of comfort. "Well, we should get going if we're going to make it back before nightfall."

(lol, Yoko doesn't know how right she is)

---

Kamina nodded at Yoko's suggestion; the desert got extremely cold at night. And with the condition of their new passenger as an extra factor, they had to get out as fast as possible. No way he would survive in his present state. "Simon, everything good to go on your end?" Kamina called out; Simon responded with a simple, "Yeah, we managed to get four of the six. The other two were too far gone to be useful." "Don't worry about it, then. We're heading back, let's move out, people!" With that, Gurren and the newly-acquired Gunmen were back to their makeshift outpost in the town of Littner.

As they traveled back with great haste, the stranger slowly began to stir. His body remained still as stone, but his mind was slowly beginning to reawaken. Fuzzy images played in his head; dulled roars and screams began to fill his ears. He wanted it to stop, to go away. But they just kept coming, until it finally ended with the crisp, crystal-clear image of a relatively small, pitch-black Gunmen exploding. A single tear slid from his eye, traveling down the taut, pale cheek skin before dropping to land on his redheaded savior's shoulder.

Yoko cradled him as best as she could, holding his head as well, sort of like she might hold an infant. He sure seemed as fragile. She felt something on her shoulder on the ride. Blinking, she looked down at him and took a good look at his face. It hardly seemed like a human face after all it had been through, but the tear stain that was cutting through the dirt proved that he was. She gently stroked his hair and did her best to comfort him, but she was certain that it didn't really register.

When they finally arrived, Yoko helped Kamina hoist the man out of the cockpit and she walked with him to the infirmary. "It'll just be a little while longer, okay? You'll be all right," she said, making sure that someone was attending to him when she left. "I'll check on him tomorrow. We need a little food and some rest too," she said, heading off toward her quarters.

As Yoko helped Kamina carry the stranger to the infirmary, some of the doctors and nurses had looks of pure horror on their face. When questioned about the man's state, Kamina just said,"None of us knows. We saw some of the Beastmen try to carry him off somewhere. Needless to say, we kicked their freak butts and emerged victorious!" Kamina's face then turned real serious, "Take good care of him, you guys. If the Beastmen were willing to perform live capture on this guy, he must be pretty important to them."

Kamina then nodded as Yoko said she was leaving to get some food and some rest; Simon had just pulled in with the other Gunmen that had been hijacked. "Hey Simon, get out of that hunk of scrap and let's go grab a bite." Simon just shook his head and held up the strange, badly-damaged gauntlets the stranger was wearing."I'll eat something later. I want to have a look at these first." On first glance, Simon didn't see anything special, but as he was taking one of the stolen Gunmen back, he noticed that there were some fairly strange electrical components in them.

Kamina just shrugged, "Alright, catch you later, kid!" Giving Simon a thumbs up, he made his way to some much needed food. Simon meanwhile stowed the Gunmen and exited, making his way quickly back into his quarters. When he finally reached them, he set the gauntlets down on his bed before crawling onto it himself. From what he could gather, the knuckle spikes somehow were driven into an opponent upon contact with the gauntlet itself. How it worked, Simon had no clue. After about an hour of trying to figure it out, he gave up from being tired. Giving a great yawn, he set the gauntlets aside and laid down.

---

Back in the emergency room, the stranger was being tended to by a small team of doctors and nurses. They had easily cleaned the man's wounds; somehow the infections present were less severe than they had presumed. There was nothing they could do about the burns, scars or bruises, however, but those would heal over time. So instead they worked to close up the numerous lacerations.

There was one particularly long one that seemed to go from the left hip, up over the right shoulder, and down again to the middle back. Luckily, the end was fairly far from his spinal column, which stuck out rather prominently. They were simply amazed that this man survived at all in his current condition; these injuries would kill just about any normal person. After some long arduous hours of operation and surgery, they managed to fix him up as best they could. Which wasn't saying much; the guy looked like a creature right out of a science fiction book.

They then assigned the small group in pairs to watch over the man for twelve hours to monitor his condition. And they did just that until the next morning.

Yoko ate sparingly, but enjoyed every single bite of her meal. She took more pleasure than usual in her shower, and was even more grateful for a safe place to sleep tonight. Though she nodded off fairly quickly, she thought of the man they'd brought in and wondered how he was fairing. Her dreams were a jumble of colors and emotions, none of which stuck with her. She woke up terribly confused. Yawning, she sat up in her bed and hopped down, getting dressed in her trademark flame gear.

The curvy soldier inspected her gun and made sure it was in working order. After she combed her hair and put it up, She made her way down to get some breakfast, and then to the infirmary to check on their special guest. The nurse on duty looked exhausted. "How's he doing?" she asked, seeing that most of the man's thin body was covered in bandages to cover the burns and prevent infection now.

"Has he woken up yet?"

Kamina had arrived at the infirmary after plowing through breakfast, only to find Yoko had beaten him to it. "Any news?" he asked. The nurse in charge shook her head, "No, he hasn't moved an inch since you brought him in. He appears to be doing well, but we can't say for certain." A small period of silence ensued, interrupted momentarily by intermittent beeps from the heart monitor. "I see" Kamina said shortly; he'd hoped the man would have awoken at least partially. That way they could have begun to see just how he came to be in the condition he is now.

She then looked back at the stranger; her eyes immediately began to well up with tears. "I'd heard so many stories of the Beastmen's cruelty, but....but....." She then leaned into Kamina's strong shoulders and started sobbing uncontrollably. "How could they do this?" she burst out into Kamina's shoulder. Kamina just froze, taken aback by the nurse's sudden outburst; he then patted her back lightly. "Sshh.....it's going to be alright." he said softly. The nurse then stood back up, her crying having been reduced to small sniffles. "S...sorry, it's just that my brother was one of the people that randomly disappeared after the town of L'nor was attacked. They never found his body among the wreckage. And seeing that man, in that condition..." she trailed off as another wave of anguish rocked her mind and body, causing her to delve into another fit of sobbing; Kamina tried to comfort her as he could.

---

Simon, meanwhile, had already awoke and eaten breakfast before going back to figuring out how those strange gauntlets worked. Simon even went so far as to try them on; he realized that his hand was far too small for it. But it didn't make sense; if his hand was too small, surely the stranger's bony hand wouldn't have been able to hold on to it? "No, that's just how he is now" Simon said as he tried to picture what the stranger might have looked like. A task he found near impossible,so he cleared the thought from his mind and went back to the gauntlets. However, try as he might, their mechanisms of action eluded him. They were too far destroyed to be salvageable, and he was about to throw them away when he noticed something odd.

A small triangle of white stuck out of the left gauntlet. Simon gave it a pull; to his surprise it popped out as a white,jagged-edged half square and fell to the floor. Simon picked it up and saw that nothing was on it; but after turning it over, revealed the object to be a photograph. A photograph of an extremely cute, ash-blonde woman standing in an odd posture; it looked like she had wrapped her arms around something. However, whatever she held onto was on the part of the photo that was missing. "Wonder who that woman is" Simon said aloud as he examined the picture. Except for the hair and eye color, she looked a lot like Yoko.

Yoko frowned, having figured he might not have gotten to them in time. When the woman started to cry, Yoko felt a pang of sympathy for her. It was never easy to lose someone--much less when you didn't know what happened. And then to see that something like this could have happened to the one you lost...It was a horrible thing to get through. "Why don't you rest for a little while?" Yoko asked. "I'll watch over him for a little while and come get you if there's an emergency." She looked at Kamina as if to tell him to take the woman to a free bed. "No worries, I'll stay. Your shift is almost over anyway, right?"

She wondered if the man would ever wake up--though to be fair it had only been one night and the poor guy had been through hell. It was wishful thinking that he'd even be alive at this point--but thank goodness he was. She sat on the edge of his bed and waited--either for Kamina's return or the next nurse or doctor. She managed to keep her thrumming outrage in check as she sat next to the man. Exciting anyone at this point wouldn't do much good. But it was a good thing that they'd managed to destroy all of the beastmen involved in this. Good riddance.

Kamina nodded at Yoko's glance. "Alright, come on. You're exhausted." He then said as he led the still sobbing nurse to see if there was a place she could lay down, leaving Yoko to sit next to the unconscious stranger. An eerie silence filled the room, the slow, intermittent beeps of the heart monitor the only thing to break the silence. Other than that, it was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

Simon had begun to make his way to see the stranger himself; when he arrived, however, he saw that the man was still unconscious and that Yoko was sitting next to him alone. Her posture told him she was still fairly angry at the Beastmen who tried to drag the poor man away; Simon was still fairly upset about it himself.

"Yoko?" Simon said in a fairly quiet voice as he made his way into the room. "He still hasn't woken up? What happened to him out there?" he continued; he knew the Beastmen were heartless murderers, but this.......this was unforgivable. The torn photo in his hand crumpled loudly as his fist clenched in anger.

"Well, he's malnourished and probably dehydrated. They ran him ragged. Quite frankly, I'm surprised he's alive at all. But he looks like a fighter. I think with enough time and rest and food he'll be good as new. The nurse said there's nothing we can really do for the burn wounds--they'll probably scar horribly. But he'll live, and that's the main thing." She smiled at Simon. "I sure wish I knew his name though."

With a little shrug, the pretty woman looked up at Simon. "Let's make those bastards pay, okay?"

Simon nodded in confidence; they would indeed make the Beastmen pay. Not just for the man lying in bed, but for everyone they've killed or harmed. "We will, Yoko. The Beastmen can be sure of that." When Simon couldn't help but wonder, though; were there others that the Beastmen chased? It didn't fit with their normal patterns. Beastmen never did anything short of brutally massacring every human on the surface they encountered, at least not as far as he had seen.

The only strange thing he ever heard of was that bodies came up missing from attacked settlements. "That's the spirit" he heard Kamina say behind him. Simon turned to see just him standing in the doorway; Kamina then noticed what Simon was holding, "Whatcha got there, Simon?"

Simon then remembered the photograph he had found in the stranger's unusual gauntlet. Slowly un-crumpling it, he smoothed it out as best he could before holding it out to Kamina, "I hope he won't mind, but I found this picture in one of those strange gauntlets he was wearing. I wonder who she is. Any guesses?"

Kamina took the photograph and looked it over, a small perverted grin forming on his face, "Whoa, she's cute. Take a look here, Yoko." He then held up the photo so Yoko could see before continuing, "Looks almost like you, doesn't it? Except for the rack, I think she's got you beat there."

Yoko was intrigued by Simon's line of thought and nodded in agreement. It did seem awfully strange that this would happen. Her curiosity was further piqued by the photo Kamina showed her. She was a beautiful girl, and Yoko wondered what their connection was, and if she was still alive. Maybe they should look for her...Kamina's comment about her breasts, however, earned him a punch in the face.

"God, get some manners, you pervert." She took the photo gently and found something to stand it on for the stranger. "It's really not our place to do any digging while he's in this state. But I'm sure that if it was in those gantlets you found, this picture must be important. Let's leave it here for him," she said. "I hope he heals soon. The suspense is killing me."

Kamina recoiled from Yoko's punch; he then rubbed his jaw gingerly. "Ow, Yoko. I'm sorry, it was just a joke." he said; he knew what he said was a bit over the line, but it was all in good fun. But he would be lying blatantly if he hadn't expected to react, at least in part, with anger.

He continued rubbing his jaw as he looked over the stranger, "Don't expect him to wake up any time, soon. Injuries like that mean he'll be out for at least a couple of weeks." Still, Yoko was right about one thing; it was kind of nerve-wracking to see someone they know next to nothing about, unable to respond to any of their questions.

"Well, I'm going to head back to see if I can discover anything that might help us." And with that, Simon made his way back to his quarters, cursing himself mentally that he hadn't approached Yoko about his true feelings for her.

Kamina then said, "Hey, Yoko, how about you and me head out to hunt? Scouts say there're a bunch of deer nearing a flourishing watering hole."

"Sure, I'll get my gun." She smiled and waved at the nurse who came next. "Take care of this guy, okay?" And then the redhead got her gun from the wall she'd propped it against and came to his side. "All right, Kamina. Let's go get some food," she said with a grin. "Remember to grab some canteens too--we may as well get some water while we're there." She smiled and walked with him, glad that she'd smacked the smarmy attitude out of him. He wasn't so bad once you got used to his personality. In fact...she sort of had a thing for Kamina. It was a little hard to tell sometimes, but it was a fact.

As the nurse nodded her agreement, Kamina strolled out with Yoko to get to the watering hole. [color=1E90FF]"Wait right here, I'll be back."[/color] he said as he ran off, only to return a few moments later with a batch of empty canteens. "Alright, let's go. We should be able to bring back enough to keep the supplies well-stocked."

---

Back at the battleground where the stranger was liberated from his soon-to-be captors, a new set of Gunmen arrived on the scene; it was blatantly obvious that they were too late. Two destroyed Gunmen and six badly mangled Beastmen corpses, along with a plethora of craters and burn marks on the ground, signaled that the high value target had escaped yet again.

"Damn, Adiane will not be pleased." one of the Gunmen said its baritone voice; another responded, "Any chance we not report this to Adiane?" The one who spoke first replied, "No, she'd find out eventually. Well, let's head back. Grab the dead and the broken Gunmen, she'll want evidence that he has been lost again." They did just that before heading back to Adiane's base, fearful of the wrath they were about to face.

Yoko nodded and walked with Kamina, headed for the watering hole with him. She chatted about different techniques with him and stayed nearby.
_________________

Adiane was not pleased. That would have been the understatement of the century. She was absolutely furious. "WHAT?! How dare you return without Exodus!? Incompetent wretches!" Adiane the elegant certainly didn't seem so elegant at the moment. Such an ironic nick name, really. The furious beastwoman rose a whip in agitation. "Tell me you idiots at least found out where he went off to?"

Kamina was really enjoying his time with Yoko, when she wasn't kicking his ass. But even then, he admired her personal strength and perseverance. As they got to the watering hole, sure enough a small gathering of deer had formed around the oasis. Luckily it wasn't too far from Littner either. "So, Yoko you want to take the first one?" he asked, trying to make up for his rudeness earlier.

---

The Beastmen quivered in a kneeling position in obvious fear as she chewed them out. "Please, General! Show mercy! We only found what was left of the retrieval unit!" A snake-headed Beastman spoke; another then supplemented his argument, "Indeed, General! We tried to get there as soon as possible! But Exodus proves to be infinitely resourceful!"

When she asked if they found out where he might have gone, they all gulped simultaneously. They had absolutely no idea where Exodus may have gone. They kept their mouths for the moment, as each of them tried to come up with an excuse so as not to get whipped by her.

A Beastmen, one resembling a large, misshapen bird, then stood up. "You know what, I've had it with Exodus! All he does is kill our troops and we keep sending more after him! You know how many of us died because of him alone!?! This new slaying brings the total to ninety-three! Ninety-three of our brothers died because of him!"

He then looked at Adiane and said maliciously, "So, you know what? Fuck you and fuck Exodus! What's so special about him that we need to throw our lives away trying to bring him back!?! Huh, you stupid ugly bitch!?!" The other Beastmen stared in shock at the hard-headed fool; with that rant, he had just signed his death warrant.

Yoko was pleased at the gesture he made to clean up his act. With a smile she nodded and got down in the grass, taking her first shot with glee. It connected with no trouble at all. But it scattered the deer a bit. "All right, hot shot. It's your turn.
________________________

Adiane was furious at the words of the minion that opposed her. However, each one made the smile on her face grow larger. She didn't have to answer to him or any of the lowlifes below her. And she wouldn't. "You should really learn your place," she said. The whip was raised and lowered so quickly that it looked like all the damage she did happened at once. The beastman was dead before he hit the floor. "Let it be a lesson to those who oppose me. FIND EXODUS! And send someone to clean up this mess." With a huff, the scorpion woman left and let the subordinates quake in fear.

Kamina smiled as he took the rifle, "Bet I can nail a big one". Looking down the scope he saw a nice-sized buck, one that give Littner a lot of meat for a long while. As it ran, Kamina visibly tracked it, before taking the shot. The bullet traveled cleanly through the skull, dropping the large male in an instant. "What do you think, Yoko? One more for good measure? Or should we take what we have and just grab the water?"

---

"Yes, Supreme General Adiane!" the Beastmen cried in unison as they dispersed; two stayed behind to dispose of their foolhardy former comrade and clean up the blood that was spilled. If any of them thought about rebelling against Adiane before, those thoughts quickly disappeared when she cut down one of her own Super Beastmen with such ease. However, that was to be expected of a Supreme General; ungodly strength and an ice-cold demeanor.

"Wow, you're getting really good at this," she said, clapping him on the back. "We may as well go for one more. I'll get it if you wanna get the canteens ready," she said, crouching low with her gun. She found another big fellow and took a steadying breath before cleanly killing the creature. "Got him. All right, let's start loading up, Kamina." She got her rifle back and put it on her back before heading toward the watering hole to gather their kills.

"Heh, nice shot." Kamina noted as Yoko downed another large deer. "Alright, then." he responded simply as he followed Yoko down to the watering hole. When there, he quickly filled the batch of canteens before proceeding to go help Yoko carry the deer. Working quickly, he gutted and bled the three deer, took their entrails back to the watering hole and threw them in the trees nearby. He then washed his hands and body; he didn't need Beastmen picking up the scent of the kill and tracking them back to Littner. They had enough to deal with at the moment. "Alright, Yoko, you carry the canteens. I'll carry the deer back."

"Well, all right. If you say so." Who was she to complain if he wanted the heavier load. She took the canteens from him and smiled as she walked along without much care, though she was constantly watching for enemies. "So, Kamina, is life on the surface living up to what you thought it would be? Aside from the beastmen attacks, that is." It was relatively small talk, but she had a feeling he'd make it into something big. That seemed to be Kamina's talent. He was a dreamer, and at times he was reckless, but he made a lot of sense in her eyes. And she had a soft spot for the big idiot.

"Well, to be honest, I thought the surface would be a bit more....lively, I think is the right word. Not just in battle, but in....I don't really know how to say it. Don't get me wrong, the random attacks definitely spice things up, but I thought there'd more up here than just a constant survival battle." Still, it wasn't all bad. He got to help people that needed it, and had a fine woman to look at and fight beside. So, all in all, his experience wasn't too overwhelming.

---

Back in the emergency room, the stranger laid on the bed, still having not moved at all. A doctor and a nurse were performing a non-invasive physical, trying to see what the exact state of his body was. Unbeknownst to them, his mind was still extremely slow, but he was beginning to gain near full-awareness of his surroundings. "Am I.....dead? Alive? Everything....fuzzy.....can't....think......body......hurts" he said in his mind. As his eyes cracked open, blinding light flooded his retinas; this caused him to emit a strange, hoarse groan as his sunken eyes clenched shut. This made the nurse and doctor start; they both got expressions of relief when they saw that he was awake.

"M...ter....m.......st........th.......s" was all the stranger heard the doctor say; his hearing and eyesight sucked. Everything he saw was blurry, and the bright light didn't help either. As he tried to open his eyes, he felt someone put a dark covering over his eyes. The nurse had put a pair of dark sunglasses over his eyes, figuring the light was hurting him. As the stranger came to more and more, his hearing started to drastically improve, but his eyesight still was horrible. "Mister, can you hear me?" the doctor then said; the stranger weakly nodded as his chest rose and fell ever so slightly, causing a ragged, labored-sounding breath to exit his mouth.

The nurse put a hand to her chest, saying softly "Thank goodness, I wasn't sure you were going to ever wake up." The man couldn't see her or anything very well, so he relied on his hearing to find the source. As he tried to turn his neck, pain shot through his body; this made him emit a loud, hoarse groan. "Mister, try not to move, you were brought here in the worst shape I've ever seen. We had to do a lot of patching up, but we got you fixed as best we could." "Fixed? They must be HER people. Damn it, and here I told myself I wouldn't be taken back." the stranger said in his mind. He would say nothing to these people, nothing at all. "Can you talk? Are you in any pain?" the doctor then asked; the stranger just shook his head. He wouldn't fall for their tricks. "I see, well, let's see if we can't fix that. Nurse, please get some water for our patient here." "Right away, doctor".