Welcome to Gray Possession! The sequel to Black Garden (as if you didn't already know). Please enjoy! *^.^*

The darkness was as effective as a bucket of water over my head. Frowning, I looked around, puzzled, wiping my tears away with an impatient hand. My sister looked lost and I was somewhat confused. There were no windows. There was no light. And yet I could see just fine. Savanna huffed in irritation, "Did the power go out or something? Damn. Don't worry, Jess. They'll fix it soon, I'm sure."

"Can you see anything, Savanna?"

"Are you kidding? I can't see my own hand in front of my face. Why?"

I blinked in confusion, "Because I can see you as clearly as if there were a candle lit in here."

I could see her turn pale, "Jess. I need you to do something for me. Ok, Baby?"

"Depends on what it is…"

"Don't tell anyone about this."

I could hear the fear in her voice and I frowned, "Why? What's going on?"

"Promise!"

"Tell me why first." I maintained, not exactly happy with her at the moment, "After all, what does it matter if some crazy chick says she can see in the dark?"

She shifted and I swear I could almost hear her heart beating fast with anxiety, "It's just… important."

"Uh-huh. Well anyway, I wanna get outta here. Now's a good chance."

I refused to think about Lar'ja right then. If I had any chance of leaving, I had to push all thoughts of him to the back of my mind. Besides… that's the way he'd want it. I moved toward the door, but Savanna caught my arm; a lucky grab in the dark.

"You can't go out there!" she said, sounding almost panicked.

"Why not? What aren't you telling me, Savanna?" I was beginning to lose what little cool I had left.

Again she hedged, but finally said, "I can't say anything."

I frowned, "Why?"

"Because if I do, they'll send me away and I'm the only reason they haven't started cutting into you!"

I froze and stared at her, eyes narrowing, "They don't cut people up in psych wards."

"No, they don't. For some reason, they find your genetics fascinating."

"But we share the exact same genetics!" Never mind the fact psych wards didn't care about genetic testing.

"You're preaching to the choir here, babe."

"We're not really in Mendota are we?"

I stared at her, but though she was aimed in my direction, biting her bottom lip in anxiety, she couldn't see me. Everything was too strange. Off. Nothing was adding up right. I needed to know. I needed a place to start. I reached cautiously to my left shoulder and felt along my skin under the sleeve until I hit a ridge of harder skin, a scar. A thrill went through me and I traced along the almost-Celtic-almost-tribal semi-circular glyph. Luar'ke-de. Luar'ke-de's mark. I grinned ferally in the darkness.

"Savanna. I need to see my personal things. Clothing and what-not. Do you know where it's kept?"

She shook her head, "They're very careful not to tell me anything."

I heard footsteps outside the door and pulled Savanna out of the way. The door opened and the doctor stepped in cautiously with a flashlight, "Ladies? Is everything alright? Don't be worried, just a little power outage."

"We're fine." Savanna said.

"But you're not," I finished. Before anyone else could act, I had him pressed face first to the wall, arm at a painful angle behind his back. My left arm was pressed across his shoulders, keeping him in one place. It had been smooth, quick, easy and after three years strapped down to a table, it shouldn't have been.

"What the-?"

I increased the pressure on his arm and he cried out, "You're going to answer my questions. All of them. Yes?"

"You're crazy! Ow!"

"Wrong answer. How long have I been here?"

"Three years! Ah! I'm serious!"

"Why am I here?" I glared at the back of his head.

"Your genetic code is an anomaly. You're human, but it vaguely matches a couple specimens brought in at the same time you were captured."

"Captured?"

"Yes! You gave the FBI one hell of a fight before they brought you down. You seemed predisposed for some reason to the modifications we made to your DNA using the specimens as an example."

The last thing I remembered was falling asleep against Lar'ja's side. Why the hell couldn't I remember between then and now? My mind was overloading. I forced down the panic out of necessity and brought back my anger, "You played with my DNA? You sick bastard! These other specimens, how many were there?"

"Just four! Oww! There were only four bodies! I swear it!"

"I think you're lying," I snarled, "Tell me the rest!"

"Shit! When you were brought in, we mixed your DNA and that of one of the subjects. You miscarried after the first month and we didn't try again. That's all, I swear it!"

"Liar!"

"I swear it!" He yelled when I gave a tug on his arm.

"That isn't possible!" I yelled back. Humans and Yautja couldn't procreate. They just couldn't. Could they?

"Right!" He said almost sarcastically, "Then I guess I just imagined all the blood and the month old fetus!"

I couldn't seem to draw a full breath. I had been pregnant? And they used DNA from one of the Bad Bloods? While I was unconscious? I shook, disgusted, and when it came, my voice was squeezed down with emotion, "Month old-? Did you bastards experiment on it? Well? Did you?"

"How often do these kinds of opportunities arise? It was clearly not human, even at that early stage." He asked, exasperated, "Besides, it was only one month along and already dead. If it wasn't, we would have let you carry to term before disec-AHH! My ARM! You broke my arm! You bitch!"

I growled, enraged, "You're lucky that's all I broke you cold, unfeeling, heartless son of a bitch!" Then I demanded, "Do you still have him floating in a vial somewhere? Well?"

Savanna was trying very hard to not be a part of this scene which suited me just fine. The doctor shook his head, "Once it'd told us all it could, we disposed of it!"

I shuddered in horror I hadn't known I could feel. I had been used in ways no one should ever have to think about. And what's worse was that poor, small life that had been nothing more to these people than a science experiment. Half Yautja, half human. I hadn't even known such a thing was possible considering how different we were. Now, if I ever saw Lar'ja again, I'd have to tell him how badly I had failed. He probably wouldn't want to have anything to do with me anymore. I could kill a Queen with a door, but couldn't protect myself or a defenseless life from my own people.

I could, however, get revenge. Now that was a satisfying thought!

"Where are my things, you son of a bitch? My armor; my mask. Where are they?"

"AHH! Bitch! They're in storage. We couldn't figure out how to make them work, so we put them in storage!"

"Show me."

I kept one hand on the scruff of his neck as he led us through the many twisting hallways, Savanna an unhappy presence at my back. There was an eerie lack of people that reminded me of the last dark place I'd walked through and I kept my eyes wandering, peering into every dark corner we passed, "Where is everyone?"

"Lower level," He said with the edge of pain in his voice, "There's too much at risk here so when something like this happens, everyone without a certain clearance goes to the first floor until the power comes back."

We walked in silence until he brought us to a door like any other. Swiping his ID badge, the little light on the door's lock turned green and he opened it, stepping inside. The room wasn't huge, but it was large enough to hold all the odds and ends that might be needed in a place like this and in one corner on a small shelf, staring back at me, was my mask. Tears filled my eyes. It was like getting a friend back, a small comfort in the midst of my pain. I'd lost my mate, my Teacher, my home, my life. Three years, gone. And I knew better. I could never go back. Not after I got done doing what I was going to do here.

As soon as I stepped inside, the doctor rushed out and closed the door, leaving me trapped in the storage room. I heard Savanna yelling at him through the door and grinned. Stripping out of the scrubs, I went over to the shelf and found all of my armor, equipment, weapons, and even the black sports bra and matching running shorts. I struggled into the shift suit, annoyed at all the little holes, but once that was on, the rest was easy. After settling my weapons in their proper places, even my gun, and putting my hair up in a tail with the skull-bead from Luar'ke-de, I activated my wrist console and put on my mask, attaching it to the little hoses from my pack.

I took a moment to become reacquainted with the system, then targeted the door's handle and shot it with my plasma caster. It made a very nice hole and the screams of shock and dismay from the other side were music to my ears. I pulled the door open and walked over to the doctor who stared at me in fear, backpedaling away from me. I grinned ferally behind the mask.

I stalked closer and my wrist blades left their housing with a satisfying "schnick" sound. He held up his good hand as though to ward off a blow, but I grabbed him by his collar and pulled him near, "You took from me. Without permission. Tantamount to rape, really. I could have let that go. I would have let you live. But then you brought a small life into it. I don't care that he or she was already dead when you started cutting it up. It lived, even for just a month, because of you and the people here. You have no excuse good enough."

"Please!" He begged, quivering in terror, staring into my masks blank eyes, "Please, don't kill me! I'm sorry! Please! Please!"

I pretended to think about it before turning back to him and shoving the blades into his chest, avoiding his heart on purpose, "I'm just not feeling very charitable right now. So sorry."

His mouth open and closed silently like a landed fish and I jerked the blades free, letting him collapse to the ground. Turning to Savanna, she watched me in horror and fear, "Jessie…"

"He deserved it." I said, flicking the blood off my blades and retracting them.

"That's not for you to decide!"

"Wrong!" I snapped in barely suppressed anger, "It was for me and me alone to decide! It was my child-"

"A child you didn't even know about until now!"

"That doesn't matter!"

"Yes it does!"

"No! Because no matter what, the kid was still mine!"

"It had been miscarried! Jess, it was gone!"

I glared at her behind my mask. She didn't understand. Couldn't understand. I'd just had the last three years of my life taken from me, had my DNA tampered with, been experimented on, and found out that an innocent life that had half my DNA had been coldly pulled apart and studied before being thrown away like trash. I felt bile in the back of my throat and simply turned and walked away from her. I couldn't speak to her right now and I wanted out more than anything else.

"Jess!" She called, running to catch up, carrying the flashlight, "Jessie, wait! Look, I'm sorry. I know you're upset. It was just really shocking to see you kill someone like that."

"Technically, he's not dead yet. Soon, though."

"My God, Jess. Listen to yourself! Killing him won't bring the kid back!"

"No, but he should have to pay for everything he's done."

"You're not God, Jess!"

"True. But now I have to figure out what to say to my mate if I ever see him again. I can only imagine what my Teacher will think of all of this. Forgive me if I'm not really feeling very kindly toward any of the people here right now."

"Just don't tell them." She said as though it were the easiest thing in the world.

"Right," I said, pulling up a holographic image of the inside of the building on my wrist comp, "And just live with that burden on my conscience. Great idea."

"What does it matter? They're just aliens anyway, right? Maybe they won't care."

I looked at her, incredulous, "Believe me, the Yautja care. According to them, my honor has been compromised. It's either get revenge and take my honor back, or kill myself. Either way, I'm not really expecting them to want to have anything to do with me."

"That's so stupid!" she said, outraged.

I shrugged, silent, then headed off down another hallway. Two men in lab coats came out of one of the rooms with a flashlight between them. They saw me and one of them shouted and pulled a gun. I already had him targeted however, and the pulse of energy from my plasma caster took him in the chest. The other one turned and ran but I cut him down with one of my hunter's discs. It returned, energy snaking along the surface and I deactivated it, placing it back on my left side with the other one and the shuriken.

I turned to look at my sister who was currently tossing her cookies in a potted plant, "You ok, Anna?"

Savanna shook her head and croaked, "No. Not ok. Not at all. How could you just kill them like that?"

"Well the one was going to try to kill us, the other was going to run and tell others which would have made escape difficult."

"The first was for revenge, and these were… what? The ultimate practicality?"

"Pretty much." I said, picking up the guy's gun and searching him for any spare clips. I didn't find any, "But really, anyone I kill here is revenge. Nice to have more than one reason, though."

I tossed it to Savanna who damned near dropped it, "What do I want with this?"

"If you're not armed, you're just a victim." I was remembering poor Evalyn three years ago. I didn't want my sister to go out that way, no matter how angry I was with her.

We kept walking and every now and then we'd come upon other people and I dealt with them swiftly. I didn't really know where this ruthless streak came from, but I felt no remorse. Maybe it was from these bastards fiddling with my DNA and mixing it with Yautja? Maybe I was just that angry. I didn't know. All I knew was that wherever the little dots indicating people were, I needed to be.

I eventually came to a door labeled "laboratory" in bold letters and contemplated a moment before making a decision. Shooting the door handle with a burst of plasma, I pulled the door open and looked around. Walking inside, I perused the contents before discovering little vials with my name written on the sides sitting in a wire rack on a side table. Negligently, I pushed them off onto the floor and was already walking away when I heard the glass shatter. I'd have to destroy this place completely. Too bad I didn't have a couple grenades. That'd make things much easier.

I kept Savanna in sight at all times, not sure how I felt about her now in regards to this situation. I didn't have enough info and wished I did. We were sisters. I should be able to trust her, but I sort of didn't. It took a moment before I registered that something was different. I couldn't really hear anything, but I knew someone was walking down the hallway slowly, trying to be silent. I stood in the deepest shadows behind the door and let my sister unknowingly play "bait".

There was a long pause on the other side of the door and I stilled. My heart rate slowed and quieted, my breathing slowed, and I waited with a stillness I'd never known was possible before. The person stepped into the room with an exaggerated caution and my sister still didn't know what was happening. He stepped into my field of view and I targeted his head. The sound of my plasma caster activating was loud in the silence and he ceased all movement.

He was tall, standing at an impressive eight feet, with dreadlocks and hair beads that matched the one that I wore. I knew him. Was trained by him. But he was an Arbitrator and I had no intention of dying until I'd finished with my revenge. Savanna was staring in shock and fear, but I had all of his attention.

"Hello, Luar'ke-de. How are you?"

"Well. And yourself, Mei-jadhi?"

"I've been better."

"Is this why you would threaten your Master?"

"Partly, I suppose. Are you here to kill me? Because if you are, I have a few things to accomplish first."

"Saw the bodies. Are you Bad Blood now?"

"No. This is revenge."

"Am not here to kill you, then."

I smiled. It felt like I hadn't smiled in ages, "May I have your word of honor on that?"

"My every word is my word of honor, Mei-jadhi. You know this. And if you do not turn your weapon off, will be forced to remind you why I am your Master."

I grinned and did as he told me to and we both eased down. He turned to look at me, head tilted and clicks in his throat. I felt my throat tighten again, "Damn, but it's good to see you, dude."

"Of course!" he said with what sounded like humor, "Am lovely, am I not?"

I laughed, "Damn straight! At least until you start making me run again."

"Depends much on where you stand and where the nearest shovel lies." He chuckled, then looked over to Savanna and back, "Who is this one?"

"Savanna, my sister. Yo, Anna! Snap out of it. He won't eat your face off, you know."

"True. Must take mask off first," He agreed. I snickered, but Savanna made a funny choking sound.

"Jessie! What. The. Hell?"

"She is not as brave as you, Mei-jadhi. Disappointing."

"She has her moments. Anna, this is Luar'ke-de. He trained me and made my armor, and stuff."

"So he's the reason you murdered all those people?" She demanded, getting angry.

"No. The fact that they kept me strapped down to a table in a drug daze is why I murdered all those people. The fact that they toyed with my genetic make up and merged it with the Yautja's is why I murdered all those people. The fact that they took my DNA and meshed it with a Bad Blood's to make a life that survived for only a month and then dissected it is why I murdered all those people. They made me think I was crazy, made me think that everything I'd gone through had just been a dream! And worst of all, they made me think that my mate had never existed and you helped them do it!"

I'd had Luar'ke-de's unwavering attention, at least until I'd mentioned Savanna's part in all this at which time his attention snapped to her accompanied by a low, ominous growl. She didn't pay any attention to him, though. Her face was a wash of hurt and shock, "I did not help them!"

"Not forty five minutes ago when I woke up not knowing where I was or why, you told me that Lar'ja had never existed and that I was crazy!"

"They were listening! If I had said, 'Yes, Jessie, you're absolutely right', they'd have come in, drugged you again, and gotten rid of me! What was I supposed to do? It was all I could think of in order to stay near you and make sure you were taken care of! I tried! I'm not… not capable… of just g-gunning people… down! I'm not."

She was crying, leaning back against the wall with a hand covering her eyes. I wanted to be able to hug her and say everything was alright and of course we were still cool, but it wasn't alright and we weren't still cool. Her intentions didn't change reality no matter what. Her willingness to lie for them kept me here. If she had said "yes, you're right", I'd have done everything in my power to escape. Like now. But she hadn't. Luar'ke-de was right; she wasn't like me at all. I sighed.

I moved past Luar'ke-de and was about to head into the hallway, but was stopped by a living wall with impressive abs. I looked up, and up, and up into a mask I'd never seen before on a face I knew as well as my own. I recognized the silver beads and feathers decorating his dreadlocks and knew why the left side of his mask swept back under his dreads to where his ear was. His face was angled down at me, head tilted, and he was clicking curiously in his throat. I clawed at the tubes on my mask and they released with a hiss that made him jerk slightly in surprise and back up a step. I pulled my mask off and stared at him, unaware of the tears rolling down my face. Never had anyone looked so heartrendingly beautiful to me as he did in that moment.

"Lar'ja…"

His breath left him in a rush. I'm not sure what I would have said next because he was suddenly crushing me to him, purring loudly. He buried his masked face against the side of my neck and there was a hint of a growl at the end of each breath he took. His right hand was at the back of my head, his left arm around my waist and though he was gentle, his arms were like steel bands wrapped tightly around me and just as immovable. Not that I wanted to move them, mind you.

"Found you. Found you finally. Will never let go again. Never."

My arms tightened around his neck and he tightened his hold on me. Breathing him in deeply, savoring his scent, I finally felt my world right itself again.

I'd like to think that I learned from all of your reviews. This is the product of your kindness. A veritable tribute to your generosity. Revamped, though I didn't really have to do too much to this one. Oh well. ^.^

I own nothing… Well, ok, I own stuff but… Oh! You know what I mean! XD

Happy Reading!