Chapter 3: Lena's gift

December 6, 2023 9:20AM

"COME AND GET ME SO I CAN GIVE YOU THE WORST INDIGESTION OF YOUR LIFE!!!" Sanders yelled as the catgirl raised its hand to grab him. Sanders gritted his teeth as he waited for her hand to nearly be on top of him. As it was about to close on him, he pushed off with his still working leg and dived away from the hand. His dive got him just out of her reach, but the fall to the ground sent a spike of pain stabbing through his body. He cried out in pain as his vision blurred from the pain.

Sanders tried to push the intense pain away as he struggled to crawl away. He barely got started when he felt two large objects press onto his unbroken leg. Cursing, Sanders felt himself being lifted into the air and tried to grab onto the carpet to stop himself. The effort was a waste as the carpet strands slipped right through his hands and he was lifted higher into the air. He thought about kicking out, but all he would do is hurt himself with this broken leg. Damn you, Aviel!!

As he rose up, the catgirl's head came into view. Her massive upside down face smiled at him as her tongue licked her lips. The monster grabbed up Rick and swallowed him whole, his screams still echoing out as he slid down her throat. Panic and absolute terror gripped Sanders as her mouth began to open. He ran as he saw another man be snatched up. He tried to fight back, but the catgirl simply chewed his arms off before swallowing the rest of him. Fuck no, not like this...anything else but this! He still had to avenge Isabella, kill Aviel, save Flonne and his family, stop the Society, a-GOD PLEASE NOT LIKE THIS!!! The catgirl smashed through the warehouse's door, sending the metal gate crashing to the ground. Sanders pumped his legs harder as he heard its steps rumbling after him. Sander thrashed in the catgirl's grip, trying to shake himself lose, but her grip was too strong. Her mouth came closer and closer and her hot breath began to blast him with air. Her foot slammed down in front of him, knocking him to the ground. He tried to stand, but her hand had grabbed him before he could. She pulled him up to her mouth, blood from his friends still dribbling out. She opened her mouth,

"NOOOOO!" Sanders screamed out in terror as her mouth settled below him, her tongue out to catch him. He closed his eyes to try and shut out the terror, but the breath was still there, the pressure on his leg, and the image searing into his brain. He screamed louder as the fingers let go of his leg. He fell and his terror grew to the point of absolute hysteria. He thrashed in the air and landed on her tongue in a heap. His broken leg cried out in pain as it crumpled down onto him, but Sanders barely registered the pain. He scrambled to try and crawl off his tongue, but it was already wrapped around him. No no no! He had to escape, had to get out, had to fight, ha-

Suddenly the catgirl's head went flying forward and Sanders found himself thrown from her mouth. He plummeted to the ground, screaming the entire way. The carpet came flying up to greet him, and then everything went dark.

The world slowly came back as a storm of angry hissing and loud meowing. Sanders coughed as he gasped for breath. Sanders opened his eyes and found himself laying in a heap on some carpet. How did he get out here? And what was all that noise?

Sanders slowly lifted his head, the world spinning a bit. He glanced back behind him as his whole body screamed in agony. Further into the cage were two massive forms locked together. They were clawing, punching, biting, and kicking at each other like animals and hissing in rage. One was the same black-haired catgirl from before who had been about to eat him. Something had stopped it, though. And once the other figure shifted enough for Sanders to get a good look at her, he knew what. Pyrrha.

Sanders felt a wave of absolute relief hit him as he watch Pyrrha claw into the other catgirl. Her claw raked across the face of the other one and it cried out in pain. The black-haired catgirl had had enough and retreated back into the rear of the cage, balling herself up in the corner. Pyrrha gave her one last angry hiss as she slowly turned back to where Sanders was laying. Sanders groaned as he sat up, his vision still swimming a bit from pain and a possible concussion.

The world solidified by the time Pyrrha moved to him. She bent down to look at him and Sanders felt tears beginning to well up. He was safe...sweet fucking hell he was safe... He was safe.... The relief was too much and Sanders found himself scooting toward Pyrrha's face. Pyrrha moved to him to stop him from having to move and Sanders gave her cheek the biggest hug his tiny form could manage. He buried his face into her short fur and planted kiss after kiss on her, tears still running down his face. Pyrrha responded by purring as she softly pushed into him. He pushed the side of her cheek, getting her to turn, before giving her lips a kiss too. She returned it as gently as a her large form could. He was safe...

Sanders, finally broke off the kiss and looked up a Pyrrha. Her large green eyes stared down at him and her soft purring rumbled out from her throat.

"Pyrrha, sweet merciful God... Thank you. Just, thank you," Sanders said, though he doubted the catgirl understood. If she did, she gave no signs as her eyes moved down to his broken leg. She bent lower and sniffed it before slowly and gently licking the broken leg.

"Woah, Pyrrha d-...Ok I guess its alright" Sanders said. The rough tongue slid over his pants and soaked them, but the soft licking actually felt rather good. The constant pain from his leg began to die down thanks to the warmth and gentle caress and Sanders returned the gesture by slowly rubbing Pyrrha's cheek.

"It really is good to see you. Heh, my only remaining ally is a catgirl. Universe has a sick sense of humor," Sanders said to himself as Pyrrha stopped licking his leg. She curled up around him, making sure she was facing where the other catgirl was, and went to licking his back. Sanders let her as he leaned back and rubbed the tears away. Fuck he...he was still alive....he was still alive. Sanders couldn't help but smile as relief washed over him like a wave.

As wonderful as the feeling was, though, Sanders pushed it away as he tried to focus. He was still alive, which was good, but eventually, someone would come either for Pyrrha or the other catgirl in this cage. If they came for the other one, Sanders could just hide on Pyrrha somewhere. But if they came for Pyrrha, he would have to go with her or risk being made lunch by the other one. And if he had to go with Pyrrha, the chance of him staying hidden were slime to none. Though, Morgan was Pyrrha's handler so the one most likely to come for her was the new Sword. She had seemed more than trustworthy from the time Sanders spent with her...but Isabella had probably thought the same thing about Cathrine.

Did Morgan know what secret Isabella had found? Did all the Society know and were they all as twisted as the Matriarchs and Aviel? No...no he couldn't believe that. Isabella, obviously, had not known as she had been killed for finding it. Sanders doubted Gabriella and Alice knew either as they had been some of Isabella's closest friends. Pity they were both gone as they would have been the perfect people for Sanders to go to for help. Course, that was probably exactly WHY they were gone. Damn the Matriarchs...how long had they been planning this? Fuck, for all he knew they both could be dead as well.

That thought made up his mind on getting help from anyone in the Society. Even if he did find someone he could trust, he would just be putting them at risk of being killed. Or worse, making Aviel's choice... No, it was too risky. For now, Sanders would have to go it alone and find what Manchent had left.  He HAD to find whatever it was that Isabella found before Aviel and the Society did....oh no...

Aviel would know the clues...she would know what Manchent had told them and she would tell Angela! Worse, she might have understood what Isabella had been mouthing to him before he had shot her. "littdam madam?" Dammit, he STILL couldn't figure it out! But Aviel might have...fuck no no NO! Sanders had to get moving and get out of here. It was only a matter of time till Aviel found whatever Manchent had hidden. And if she did, both his and Isabella's deaths would become meaningless. Sanders would NOT let that happen!


Sanders turned to face Pyrrha, getting a lick right to his face as he did. The sandpaper like tongue slid off him and Sanders rubbed the saliva off his face. Pyrrha, thankfully, didn't go in for a second lick as she noticed him having turned around. He needed to get out of here, but with this broken leg he wasn't going to be walking out. Which meant he was going to need a ride out of here. A bumpy, stomach-churning ride, but a ride nonetheless. But first, he needed to get out of this cage.

"Pyrrha, up," Sanders said, hoping Pyrrha understood. She meowed in response and looked to have understood, but rather than her hand coming to pick him up, her mouth came toward him.

"No not lic-WOAH!" Sanders said as Pyrrha's mouth opened. He turned to try and scramble away, fear overriding his sense, but had barely turned when he felt her mouth closed on the back of his jacket. Sanders gave a cry of dismay as Pyrrha lifted him up into the air with her mouth, carrying him like a mother cat would her baby. Sanders was less than thrilled to see the ground fall away from him as he was taken at least three scale stories into the air. Sanders calmed down once he saw Pyrrha was just doing what he asked, and had a good grip on him, and took a few deep breaths to get his heart-rate back to normal.

"OK...OK that works. Now turn so I can see the cage door...." Sanders said before his mind wondered why he thought that would work.

"Turn left...Left...That way! Dammit you can't see me can you?" Sanders said suddenly realizing the problem with this position. Well this was just great. He was about to just tell her to put him down, when she suddenly began to shift. Sanders cursed as he tried to grab hold of something, but there was nothing to grab. Pyrrha shifted into a sitting position and Sanders found himself dangling above her perky breasts. Her head bent down and began to slowly lower him down into her cleavage. Some part of Sanders was telling him he didn't have time to play with her modest melons, but another was yelling that there was ALWAYS time for that. Torn between his two wants, Sanders didn't fight as Pyrrha gently set him down between her breasts, being extra careful of his broken leg.

Sanders couldn't help but rub Pyrrha's breasts as he sat in between the house-sized funbags. Shame his leg was broken or climbing up to the top of them and laying claim to them wo- NO NO! Sanders shook off his perverted thoughts as he tried to focus on getting out. He could fondle her giant breasts when they were out of the cage and not in danger.

Pyrrha's shift had given Sanders a decent view of the cage door, thankfully. It was rather low tech, just a set of metal bars crisscrossing each other. However, the bars were close enough that even Sanders wouldn't be able to squeeze his body through. The fact they had made the space between the bars so small made Sanders wonder if he was only the latest of many people feed to the catgirls... He shook off that thought as he tried to focus on escape.

Near the top left of the cage, Sanders could make out the latch that keep it in place. Not exactly state of the art, but they probably never figured a normal person would be able to get to it way up there and a catgirl would be too dumb to figure out how it worked. But most normal people didn't have a catgirl to use as a lift and most catgirls didn't have a normal-sized buddy. Sanders turned and looked up at Pyrrha's huge, smiling face.

"Pyrrha, over there," he said pointing toward the latch. Pyrrha cocked her head and gave him a confused look. Dammit...

"Take me there. Go there!....Move there," Sanders said hoping to find the right command. The last one seemed to register with her and she followed his finger to the latch. She meowed before bending down and biting the back of his jacket again. Sanders was a little more calm about being held like this a second time, but still found the prospect of nothing but open air below him...worrying. Pyrrha shifted and crawled over toward the latch, the breath from her nose blowing past him. She looked at the latch in confusion, but didn't get him close enough to mess with it.

"Move me closer, Pyrrha! Closer!" Sanders yelled hoping she understood. She seemed to get the idea and leaned in close to the latch, getting Sanders close enough to get a grip on it. The thing was nearly as big as he was and the bars made getting a grip hard, but Sanders was determined to get this door open. He dug his finger into the metal, or tried too, and grunted as he tried to pull the latch back to let go of the cage door. Sadly, all he managed to do was scrap his fingers on the metal.

He swore as he shook the pain out of his fingers and tried to think of some other way to do this. If he could just get a good grip on it, he might be able to pull it open. But fucking Angela and Aviel had taken everything off him save the clothes on his ba-....

Sanders looked at the latch, specifically, where it jutted out for someone outside to get a grip on it. It was useless with him being inside, but if he wrapped a part of the his clothing around the latch, it would get stuck on that jutting piece of metal and he could get a decent grip then. Sanders though about using his pants, but they were simple blue jeans. The fabric would, likely, rip before he got it open. However, his flak jacket was made of heavy duty fabric, reinforced with flak plates. If anything was strong enough to pull the latch open, it was going to be that. Of course, he couldn't use his flak jacket until Pyrrha let go of it.

"Pyrrha, down. No not on the ground, your hand!" Sanders said catching the mistake he almost made before it ended with him back on the ground. Pyrrha did as she was told and sat him down, gently, in her hand. She looked at him in confusion as he took off his jacket and looked somewhat sad when he made no moves to take off his shirt under it. Sanders looked at the jacket, remembering when Isabella first gave it to him. He had lost the pants of the armor back when he first meet Pyrrha, but at least he still had this. They would pay...Aviel most of all.

Shaking off his anger, Sanders pointed back up to the latch. Pyrrha got the idea and raised him back up to it. Sanders scooted over to it, careful not to bump his leg, and wrapped the jacket around the latch. He pulled it tight and moved it down to the handle. He took a deep breath and then began to pull. He grunted and strained as he tried to pull the latch off. At first it looked like it wasn't budged, but it slowly began to give. Sanders felt and heard the latch slowly scrapped its way back. But the sheer effort of moving the huge, to him, metal bar was wearing on him and his arms began to shake in exertion. He was about to give up, when Pyrrha's finger and thumb closed around the jacket and began to pull too. With her far greater strength, the latch came out and the cage began to fall.

Sanders let go of part of the flak jacket to make sure it didn't rip, but realized too late that Pyrrha hadn't. The left arm of the jacket ripped as the cage door fell away. Sanders swore as the left arm and shoulder of the jacket fell to the ground far below, lost to sight. Thankfully, the rest of the jacket was still intact and still in his hand. Well...at least he still had some of the armor.

The cage door gave a loud clang as it struck the cage below the one they were in. The noise caused a lot of the other catgirls to hiss and cry out. Sanders held his breath waiting for a giantess to barge in and wondering what had made that noise. She never came, though, and Sanders let out a breath of relief. Sanders was putting back on his damaged jacket when Pyrrha closed her hand around him, leaving him in mostly darkness. Sanders barely had time to yell out in surprise when he suddenly felt the weightless feeling of falling. Fuck, Pyrrha must have jumped out of the cage!

Sanders braced himself for impact and heard Pyrrha's feet hit the ground. The impact in her hand, though, was a lot less violent and Sanders managed to avoid hitting his broken leg on anything. Pyrrha opened her hand and smiled happily when she saw he was unhurt. Sanders sat up and saw they were, indeed, on the ground now. Behind Pyrrha, was a wall lined with cages, the open one a row up. In front of them were just more cages with more catgirls, many of them now clawing at their cages and making a good bit of racket. A single door was the only way in or out of the room and loomed high above even Pyrrha.

Sanders cursed at all the noise the other catgirls were making. With this much racket it was only a matter of time till a Society member came to see what was going on. They needed to get out of here before then. However, using the door, assuming Pyrrha COULD use it, would take them right out into the hallways where they were sure to be spotted. If Sanders was on his own he might be able to slip down them without being spotted, but that was out of the question with his leg broken. And, if he had to be honest, he didn't want to leave Pyrrha here, either. He was no fan of catgirls, but seeing them all locked up in these cages like livestock made him feel sorry for them. Doubly so if they had once been normal people like Flonne....He dearly hoped that was not the case.

Shaking off those thoughts, Sanders looked around for some other way out of the room. Off in the corner, Sanders spotted a vent leading out of the room. It still had its cover on it, but it looked to be the only way out of here. He pointed to it and got Pyrrha to head over to it. The vent cover was metal and was screwed into the plaster of the wall. Even if there had been a convenient screwdriver just laying around, Sanders doubted he could get Pyrrha to use it right. Still, there had to be some way to get it open. Sanders pulled on it to get a sense of how tight on it was and frowned at it not even rattling.

Pyrrha sniffed at it and then looked at Sanders. She suddenly picked Sanders up with her mouth, getting a cry of alarm from him, before her now free hand gripped the edge of the vent cover. She pulled on it to no avail and then put her other hand on it. She strained against the cover again, the toned muscles in her arms standing out, but again it was useless. Sanders  was about to tell her to stop when she shifted to put her legs on either side of the vent and began to pull with her arms and her legs. She gave a low meow of effort before, finally, the vent snapped free and went flying back toward the door. The sudden snap sent Pyrrha reeling back and Sanders along for the ride. Thankfully, Pyrrha's lips acted as massive airbags of flesh to pad his launch backwards, though one of his arms slipped through into her mouth.

Sanders pulled his arm free, shivering a bit from the memories of the other catgirl nearly eating him. He had no wish for any part of him to be in any catgirls' mouth, Pyrrha or otherwise. Pyrrha shifted her lips a bit and got his jacket back in her mouth before she sat up. No sooner had she sat up, did Sanders hear the sound of the door opening behind him.

"What the hell is going o- what the fuck?" a booming female voice said from behind Pyrrha. Shit, a giantess had finally come in to see what all the noise was about!

"Pyrrha go! Hurry!" Sanders said pointing forward, not remembering Pyrrha couldn't see him holding him like this. Thankfully, Pyrrha seemed to have gotten the idea and didn't even look back as she took off into the air duct on her hands and knees. Sanders heard the giantess curse out and her footsteps boom after them. Pyrrha, however, scrambled down the duct like she was made to move on her knees and quickly turned a corner to get out of reach and sight. Sanders held on, or rather hung limply, as Pyrrha raced through the ducts, his stomach turning knots from the swaying. They went up a level, down two more, around more corners than Sanders cared to count and left every bit of anything that had been in Sanders' stomach behind.  After a few minutes of this, Sanders could simply take no more.

"Pyrrha.... stop!" Sanders yelled between dry heaves. The catgirl slowed to a stop in a long straight duct. She laid down, putting Sanders on the ground in front of her mouth, and rested as she caught her breath. Sanders could have kissed the dust covered ground if he wasn't too busy dry heaving on it. He spent a good two minutes just trying to settle his stomach as Pyrrha's breath blasted the back of his head. Finally, Sanders' stomach settled down enough for Sanders to think.

For now, they were mostly safe inside the ducts. While Sanders had no idea where he was, he was fairly sure the Society had the same problem. Staying in the ducts would probably be the safest place for them on the base. Even better, the ducts had to go outside at some point. However, going down the wrong duct could send them right to the AC unit as well. And after going though all this work to get out of the cage, Sanders had no intention of getting killed by getting sucked into a damn AC unit.  Maybe getting out of the ducts would be a better idea...

Sanders looked ahead and saw some light filtering in from another vent up ahead. He slowly crawled his way there, letting Pyrrha rest, to see what was outside. He stopped beside the opening and peered around the corner, ready to duck back if anyone was in the room.

The room was rather small, looking to be only slightly larger than a storage closet. However, nothing inside it looked to be simple storage stuff. Large machines that Sanders had never seen before nearly filled the room. All of them rumbled away doing...whatever they did as massive cables snaked away from them. A large computer console was in the middle of the room where all the cables converged, looking like some kind of monolith. In front of the console, on top of another large machine, was a small tube that looked to be holding something, though Sanders couldn't tell what from here. Past the console was the only door leading into the room, a massive reinforced steel blast-door that looked capable of taking a tank shell without breaking. No people were inside as far as Sanders could see.

Whatever was in that tube had to be direly important to the Society to require this kind of setup, Sanders thought to himself. He crawled closer to the vent and cautiously stuck his hand out, worrying there might be a trap or something on it. Nothing seemed to happen so he slowly inched out of the vent to look at it from the other side. By the time he crawled far enough away to see the vent cover fully, Pyrrha had moved to the vent.

She looked out of it with a worried look and began to meow at him in sadness. Sanders tried to hush her, but she refused to be quiet. Before he could do anything to stop her, she moved back and rammed into the vent cover. Sanders cursed as the vent rattled from the impact and he waited the inevitable alarms to sound. The alarms never came, though, and Sanders was just beginning to relax when the vent cover came crashing to the ground, just inches from him. Sanders jumped at the noise and sudden mass of metal falling in front of him, before glaring up at Pyrrha.

"FUCKING HELL! Dammit, Pyrrha are you trying to get us caught?!" Sanders yelled at the catgirl as she moved up to him with a bright smile, oblivious to how pissed Sanders was. She rubbed her cheek against him and Sanders tried to push her off, but to no avail. He groaned in annoyance as he waited for the door to open. Any second another giantess would come in, see them, and Sanders would have to take another stomach churning ride hanging from Pyrrha's mouth.

To his utter shock, nothing happened, save for Pyrrha switched to licks. He got her to stop after a few attempts and saw the door was still closed and nothing seemed to be issuing any alarms. Then he remembered the door was built like a fucking tank so sound probably didn't travel through it too well. He was debating between just getting out of here or looking at the tube when he got an...odd feeling.

It was...hard to explain at first and seemed like just an unknown feeling, but it solidified into a feel-no...a though- No...a word.

Come..

Sanders rubbed his head as he tried to shake off the feeling. What the hell was that? It was like a thought he had had himself, only didn't. Maybe the lose of all those fluids was making him a bi-

Over here...

He jerked up and looked around, sure he had heard someone this time. Pyrrha was looking around in confusion too, her ears lowered a bit. Beside the two of them, however, there was no one else in the room. Sanders turned to Pyrrha and made up his mind about the place.

"Let's go Pyrrha, up," he said as Pyrrha looked down and grabbed his jacket again, looking a bit eager to get out of here too.  She was turning toward the duct when she suddenly stopped. Sanders tried to look up at her, but couldn't turn enough to get a good look. Suddenly, Pyrrha's hand came up and she sat him down in her hand.

Sanders shifted around in her palm to look at her and saw she had a very odd look on her face. Her ears were standing straight up and her eyes had a sort of glazed look to them, almost like she was not all there. Her mouth began to mouth out words, though Sanders wasn't able to tell what she was mouthing. She turned back toward the room and began to climb up some of the equipment.

"Pyrrha stop. Pyrrha? Pyrrha! PYRRHA!" Sanders yelled at the catgirl to no avail. If she heard him, she gave no response as she climbed up the machines till she reached the tube Sanders had seen. Now much closer to it, Sanders could see what was inside the tube. It was a woman.

The woman had long black hair and looked to be only in her late teens early twenties. She was dressed in a simple medical robe and looked to be suspended in some kind of strange liquid. Her eyes were shut and she looked to be asleep as she slowly drifted in the liquid currents. She was only about 5'4 or so tall, or had been before the disaster, and looked to be a scrawny little thing. Pyrrha sat him down near the tube before moving back toward the console. Sanders had no idea what was going on and-

Closer...please

SHIT! Sanders nearly leap back from the tube as the voice came again, now obviously female. He stared at the woman in the tube and dearly wished he had some kind of weapon on him. He needed to get awa-

No! Please....for Isabella's sake...

Sanders stopped dead in his tracks at the mention of Isabella. He stared at the woman in the tube for a second deciding to try something.

"How do you know Isabella?" he asked feeling a bit stupid talking to a woman in a -

From you...

He was frozen in place with that response...it was a response, right? What else could it be? And what did she or it mean by from him? What the FUCK was going o-

PLEASE...just...touch the...tube

The force of the first word caused him to cringe a bit, but there was a feeling mixed with the words. Desperation and...fear. Sanders looked at the woman again, trying to decide whether he was about to unleash some ungodly horror on the world. Then again, with the Society on the loose how much worse could this woman be?  A lot worse, of course, but what option did he have? He couldn't get down with Pyrrha offing doing...something and he couldn't just sit here forever.

With no other options available, Sanders scooted over to the edge of the tube, took a deep breath, and placed his hand on the tube.

Sanders felt like he was suddenly thrown forward as if someone had just slammed on the brakes for the entire world, yet didn't move at all. The world outside dimmed and swam becoming more like a dream as he felt fear and confusion grip him.

"No, don't be afraid. Its alright, you are fine," a female voice said from...everywhere. Sanders tried to move his eyes to look around, but his eyes refused to obey him. He wanted to scream, but his mouth made no attempt to open. Fuck what they hell was going on?!

"I'm sorry! Please, just calm and listen. I wish I could do this less...intrusively, but its the only way I could talk to you. And the only way you will be able to find what Isabella found," the voice said. Sanders fear was pushed aside at the mention of Isabella. Find what she had found? What did she know about that? HOW did she know about that?

"I already told you, you told me about it. Your mind told me. I am sorry for intruding into you, but when I felt your negative emotions toward the Society I knew I had to act.  I have been waiting for you for a long time. And now...now there is so little time. So please, just listen to me," the voice said in a pleading tone. Sanders was still afraid and worried, but tried to get his feelings under control. He still didn't know if he could trust this woman or voice or whatever, but he would at least listen.

"That is all I am asking for. I know what happened to your friend, Isabella and the betrayal you suffered. I am sorry for all of it, but there is still hope. You still have Manchent's clues and you CAN beat the Society and your ex-friend to the truth. I have seen it. But you cannot do it alone, you will need help. I can offer some, but you will need more than what I can give," the voice said before a sudden sharp pain piercing Sanders mind. He tried to shut his eyes to the bright light piercing his mind, but his eyes did not budge. He screamed without making a noise as the light slowly morphed into a map. A map of the area Northwest of Atlanta. A spot on the map was glowing a soft white with the words, "Hope" beside it.

"Forgive me for having to do this, but I have to know you will remember the location. Go to Hope and there you will find the help you need...and my brother, Darius Ranfred. My brother will be their leader and they will, undoubtedly be suspicious of you. However, my brother will understand and help if he knows I sent you. Tell him," she paused as the pain came back again, "Remember the promise of November. He will know I sent you then. Take him to the truth and  let it ignite the fires that revive the Phoenixes. Only with their help will you have a chance of getting justice for Isabella, Manchent, and all the others who have died at the Society's hands. Remember the promise of November, remember it and remember who Darius is!" the voice said before the pain came back and a new image was burned into Sanders' mind.

This time it slowly formed into that of a face. The face was of a man with a cocky smirk and bright green eyes. His black hair was well kept and he looked to be on the verge of a laugh as he looked down at him. Sanders could tell this was not his memory, but the woman's memory as it was seared into his brain. He tried to scream again, but there was no noise again.

"I am so sorry for having to do this to you, but it is the only way. While I cannot heal the pain that will come from these assurances, I can heal the other parts of your body. And I can give you an ally that will be beyond invaluable. She will take time to arrive, but she will be the greatest ally you will have in this journey. I wish I could do more, but already we are in danger of discovery. Remember what I told you and go. GO!" the voice screamed as Sanders jerked back and was thrown from the tube. He skidded along the machine and managed to stop himself with his leg-

Sanders eyes widened as his broken leg moved without an ounce of pain. He looked down at the rest of him and realized he was no longer hungry or tired or...anything! It was like he had eaten a full course meal and had a full day of rest! How the fucking hell?

He looked back at the tube and saw the woman's green eyes open and staring at him. A shiver went through him as they began to glow.

GO! the voice said as he looked at her in confusion. What the hell was that? What the hell was SHE!? Before he could wonder about anything else, Pyrrha's massive hand came down and scooped him up. Sanders cursed as she leap down from the machine and he wrapped himself around her thrunk-like thumb. She landed as gently as she could before scampering back into the air duct. Once inside, she turned back and grabbed the vent cover and pulled it back in place, propping it up to make it look like it was still attached.

"Pyrrha? How ar-" he started to say before Pyrrha shushed him. Sanders was so stunned by seeing Pyrrha do such a...a human thing that he almost missed hearing the sudden clang of metal. Sanders moved to the edge of Pyrrha's hand too look out the vent and saw the massive metal door slowly beginning to open.

"Operative 123, inside containment room," a booming voice from outside the door said as it opened to reveal the giantess past it. She was wearing next to nothing save a cloth robe and a large metal helmet that looking like something out of a sci-fi movie. The thing had all kinds of wires, and strange things that did fuck knows what.

"Roger, entering room," the giantess said as she moved to the console and began to type away at it.

"Check complete. Definite signs of psychic activity. Readings show it to be focused outside. Probably another call for help or something.... Understood, heading back out for mental check and decontamination," the giantess said before turning back and heading through the massive metal door. Psychic activity... son of a bitch that woman was a psychic!

It...it sounded like crazy talk but what other explanation was there? The voices in his head, the sudden intelligence by Pyrrha, that weird vision, her knowing about Isabella, the map- Sanders winced as his head suddenly got a spike of pain. He closed his eyes only for the map to appear in perfect clarity behind his eyes. It soon faded to be replaced with the phrase, Remember the promise of November, which was then replaced by the face of the smirking man. He cursed as the pain slowly faded a bit, but the images did no such thing. Every time he closed his eyes they would appear and no amount of rubbing or anything got them out. Fuck what had she done to him?!

Pyrrha looked down at him in worry and gave a soft meow as she nudged him with her nose. He tried to ignore the pain in his head as he rubbed her nose.

"I...I'm alright. Just...fuck that lady did a number on my head," he said, though Pyrrha didn't seem to understand a bit of it. Whatever sudden spark of intellect Pyrrha had had seemed to have gone.

With the pain slowly fading to manageable levels, Sanders looked back up at the tube. He thought about going bac-

NO GO!!!

He winced at the sudden flare and decided not to go back. He closed his eyes and looked at the map again. Hope...November...Darius... He sighed as he got Pyrrha to sat him on her head rather than hold him in her mouth. With his legs now both working, he could ride up here and not have to be held like a kitten. He still didn't know if he should trust that woman, but either wy he still had to get out of this base.