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Isaiah.

Six months ago I met Isaiah. The first time I had seen him he had had a bullet stuck between his eyes by our previous Headmaster. In the few short days we had spent together we grew closer and closer. Were we an item? Were we lovers? Truth be told I didn't know. All I knew was that we cared for one another. It was for that reason that when I saw Isaiah after the six long months we had spent apart, I couldn't help but cry silently.

The chamber was a large, rectangular room with a divide bisecting the chamber across the middle. The divide was made entirely of glass panes and steel framework that crisscrossed in front of me. Monitors and computers lined the walls on either side of me, men and women in white lab coats attended to the machines and checked their clipboards, their ignorance to me being there was filled with an almost touchable tension. A werewolf in a room full of humans who had done nothing but inflicted harm upon him, and now his companion. I took two steps and touched my still-shackled hands to the pane of glass in front of me. It was warm to the touch, warm enough to make me take my hands away.

What in Gods name was this place?

I gazed through the window panes at what huddled on the middle of the other chamber's floor. The other half of that bizarre chamber was sunken in the middle. That half of the ceiling adorned with long, narrow lamps that stood beside one another in rows. Heat lamps. I didn't know much about crocodiles, but Isaiah was a werecrocodile and seemed to heal all the better when he was submerged in cold water. God knows what heat to that intensity could do to him, especially for a six month long period.

Thick, great chains shackled him to the middle of the sunken area in the floor, no doubt the steel was imbued with silver like my own had been. Once more, silver of that intensity would not have done any harm for short periods of time, but six months long of being shackled had the potential to do some outward damage. Isaiah huddled on his knees, his clothes ragged as his breath came shallow and rattled. He looked up with unfocused pale green eyes, green eyes I had once called beautiful, the beauty had been stolen by exhaustion and pain. His six foot seven frame was drawn in on itself, his muscular form had withered a little, but still that werecroc looked impressive, even when he was shackled and panting from severe heat exhaustion. His hair had grown out a little, but not as much as mine. The pale brown of his hair seemed a little darker. He strained his tanned skin over his muscles, as he gazed up and realised it was me stood between the two suited gentlemen who represented Haven. "Ja...ck..." Isaiah's voice sounded gravelly and distant. His throat must have been as dry as a bone. I reeled on the two suited men behind me. The one on the right called Cameron, the one on the left named Smithe. "Enough. He has served his six months, now get him out of there!" "Not necessarily," Smithe replied casually. Cameron glanced at his wristwatch. "Linus Eckhardt ordered that Isaiah be isolated two hours after yourself, so that when you emerged you could see the kind of imprisonment that your...companion was placed in," he explained, with a laid back tone to his voice. Their sheer casualness irritated me alot. "That does sound like something Linus would do," I replied. "How long?" "Excuse me?" Smithe asked. "How long until he can be let out?" I demanded. Smithe nodded and said, "Twenty-six minutes." "And then you let him out?" I replied, making sure I wasn't about to be double-crossed. Smithe nodded again. "Indeed," Cameron added. "In the meantime, answer a few things for me." "Ask away," Cameron replied. "Lian. Where is Lian?" I demanded with an impatient glare at the two. "The werelion, Lian was taken and imprisoned at the same time as Isaiah, he will be released at the same time as well, but the Chairman has decided that Lian must accompany him on an assignment. Call it a responsibility for him being one of the previous Elite," Smithe explained with that relaxed air about him. "When will I see him again?" "When the Chairman sees fit." "And in the meantime?" "Be patient." "Fine. What about Eckhardt? Where is the old Headmaster?" I snarled back. "Linus Eckhardt is dealing with some...personal business outside of Haven," Smithe said. "Business?" Smithe nodded. I frowned a little harder and asked, "What kind of business?" "The personal kind." "I know that, but what kind of personal business could a psychopath like Linus have?" "You are not privvy to the details," this from Cameron. "And why is that?" I asked, glaring at him this time. "Because you are not important enough." I raised an eyebrow at that response and growled, "Charming." "Anymore questions?" "Yeah. What is Havok?" "Your acting Headmistress," Smithe replied. "Yeah, I know that, but what is she?" I growled back. "Your acting Headmistress," Cameron replied this time. "That is not what I meant!" I snapped back. The two looked at one another and then smiled blankly back at me. Nothing. "You won't tell me, huh?" I touched my shackled hands to the warm glass and gazed at Isaiah again, then added, "Then tell me how the wolf pack works. Havok explained that I had inadvertedly inherited an entire wolf pack and then had them scattered. I'm still a little new to the semantics of how a true pack works, so help me out, tell me how it should have worked?" "We are not wolves," the two said in unison. "We do not know the ins and outs of how the wolves work," Smithe added. "Havok isn't a wolf either, I would know if she was, but she seems to know a fair deal about them," I replied. The two just stared back at me. I couldn't help but laugh at them both. "Your not privvy to the information concerning the wolves? Good. Welcome to my world," I grinned and suddenly realised that there was no need for me to be shackled anymore. I rounded on the two suits and held out my bound hands. "Mind releasing me? I promise not to...eat anyone here," I murmured with a smile.

I could sense the tension in the room spiralling upward. They were frightened of me. Good. I would rather they were frightened than simply observing this conversation. Smithe stepped forward and undid the shackles, I massaged my bared wrists and noticed the flesh had been scraped and worn down to the muscle. I'd heal now that the silver had been taken away, but I would have to make do with the mild tingle of pain running through my flesh.

The beast inside me growled, and the noise echoed through my chest and trickled between my lips. The two suited men tensed like the rest of the room had. I swallowed back the beast and grinned wider. I loved that these mere humans who had helped keep me imprisoned here were still frightened of me even after having kept me locked away for six months. I had a sense of satisfaction spreading through me.

I turned back to the pane of glass and touched my hand to the still-warm surface. "What's going to happen when we're done here?" I asked. "You and Isaiah will return to the curriculum of Haven Institute, as well as your Initiation proceedings as well, I believe Headmistress Havok explained all of this," Smithe responded. "How long are the Initiation's due to continue for?" "Two more weeks," Cameron said. "And what happens when those are done with?" I asked. "You will find out when the time comes," Cameron explained. I stared at the two men before me, I glanced at the men and women all around me. "How do you do it? How do you all do it?" I asked. Cameron and Smithe exchanged a look and Cameron asked, "Do what?" I rounded on them and was suddenly furious with their response. "How do you work here! How do you work for people like Eckhardt, and Havok, and even Schneider!" I turned on the scientists and growled, "Answer me! All of you!?" Smithe smiled sadly. Cameron murmured, "I have a family to protect. Wife, two daughters, one is barely six months old." "Husband and adopted son for me," Smithe added. I suddenly understood how men and women like these could work here. The satisfaction I'd had of them being frightened of me earlier dissipated and eventually dulled to a sensation of mutual depression. The scientists all shared that same expression; entrapment. Each and every one of the men and women in that room, including myself, was trapped in some way or another by Haven Institution. Blackmail. Haven suddenly seemed so much larger than what I had anticipated. That notion sent a chill down my spine.

I smiled sadly back at the others. There was a strange sense of comradery about us all there. I stood there was the only wereanimal, apart from Isaiah, and felt sorry for the pureblooded humans all around me. We were all in the same boat, the same boat that would sooner or later sink, taking us all into the deep, dark depths with it. I wiped fresh tears from my pale blue eyes and turned back to the warm pane of glass that divided me and Isaiah.

Isaiah was standing! "Don't...be upset...with them...Jack..." he croaked. "Isaiah," I winced. Seeing him in so much pain and discomfort hurt my heart. "I wanna ask how you are, but I feel that questions redundant," I added with a sad smile. "I'm...fine..." he smiled back and took another step forward. He jutted to a halt and glanced back. The shackles that held him had reached the limitations of their length. "A little longer, Isaiah, then we can get out of here and go rest up." "Rest...sounds good..." "How long does he have left?" I demanded, rounding on Cameron and Smithe now. Smithe checked his wristwatch. He nodded to the nearest scientist. Buttons were pressed. Dials were turned. A low hiss ruptured the quiet that had stretched between us all, and slowly but surely the pane of glass shifted and started raising, disappearing into the ceiling. Heat, like nothing I had ever experienced before, smacked me and made me stagger. Sweat beaded on my pale skin and soaked my clothes almost instantly. I couldn't imagine what six months in that Hell must have been like for Isaiah.

As soon as there was enough room I ducked under the glass barricades and ran to Isaiah. The shackles snapped open and the bigger man slumped forward, I caught him and helped him stand slowly. We were both still so weak, but slowly I managed to help him cross the divide and enter the cooler side of the chamber. His clothes clung to him with sweat. I stopped in front of Cameron and Smithe. "I need assurances that Lian is alive," I snarled. "He has been...detained." "Detained?" "Like I said, Schneider himself needs Lian for some personal business regarding his position as an Elite." "Now allow us to show you to your dormitories," Smithe smiled happily. I wanted to contend them, I wanted to fight back, but between Isaiah's heat exhaustion, my overall weakness, and the sense that we were all being held against our will by Haven, I just nodded and followed the two suited men as they escorted us to our home. I was safe in the knowledge that all who were brought here were considered too valuable in Haven's eyes. The Institution would push and attempt to break our spirits, but our physical presence was considered precious by them. No one would die on purpose within Haven's boundaries.

That was the one guarantee I had that Lian was alright.

All I could do now was hope and get Isaiah healed up and back to fighting condition.