Dawn broke through the glassless windows slowly. Blinking, the black tom sat up, rubbing at his eyes. Was it really morning already? He smiled down at the little queen by his side, bending to lick at her cheek.

“Wake up, lover. Day’s here.”

Opening her eyes reluctantly, Zia yawned, her pink tongue lolling out. She stretched her forearms out in front of her, digging her claws into the mattress.

“Is it already?”

“Yes, of course it is.” Raptor stretched his arms up above his body. “Do you honestly think I would wake myself up before the dawn? Not a chance.”

“Lazy creature.”

“I prefer energy conservative.”

Zia shook her head, carefully grooming the tangles out of her fur. “Call it whatever you want. I still think you’re lazy.”

He swatted at her, being ducked casually by the little queen, then stood. Walking to the window, Raptor looked down thoughtfully, his eyes trained on a group of strays moving about underneath, several stories down. Zia glanced up at him, curious.

“What are you looking at?”

“Nothing in particular,” he murmured softly, scratching his head thoughtfully. He turned back to her, watching her carefully for a moment. “Zia… is there a reason you’re doing this?”

She looked up sharply. “Doing what? Grooming? Because I don’t want to look like a mussed up, drab glamour queen.” She stuck out her tongue. “Besides, you always say you like a girl who looks neat and put together.”

“Why are you sleeping with me?”

She hesitated, not looking up. “Why do you want to know?”

“I want to know your motives,” he answered, crossing the room and beginning to pace, his face dangerously calm. “I want to know if maybe you don’t have some ulterior motive to this.”

She straightened, her eyes watching him closely. “Raptor, I don’t know why you feel the need to ask. I thought that we were past this.” She shook her head. “We both agreed that it was something that we wanted to do, that we didn’t really need to care about one another. It’s just a little harmless fun.”

“Maybe before. But, now, with the Rebellion, I can’t help but think that maybe you’re doing this for other reasons.”

Zia sneered. “Of course not. You pride yourself too much on your importance. I was with you before this whole thing got started, so why should you be suspicious that I continued to stay with you?”

“I… no reason. I guess it doesn’t matter.”

Uncomfortable, Zia went back to her grooming as Raptor continued to pace. She was startled when he continued.

“I heard that you were with Pippen last night.”

“What’s wrong with you?” she hissed, growing angry now. “If you count walking with him for a distance, getting the crap scared out me by Macavity, then being shooed on home an exciting, romantic evening, you need to get some help.” She narrowed her eyes. “Honestly, Raptor, you’re taking this to heart. If I were really with him, do you honestly think that I would’ve done anything to help rumors get spread around?”

Raptor shrugged, troubled. “I don’t know.”

“Well, I wouldn’t, so you don’t need to worry about it.” Feeling a little bad about her outburst, Zia climbed off the bed and walked to him, swinging her arms around his waist. “Come on now, lover, think about it. I wouldn’t go and socialize with the enemy without your express approval.” She traced a claw up his back, smiling when he swallowed, glancing back at her.

“I see you’re going to use your rather talented female assets to drive me off this course, huh?” he asked.

“I’m going to use them to do a number of things. Now, why don’t you stop worrying about it?”

“I… all right,” he moaned lowly, unable to help himself from the tiny queen’s wandering paws. He briefly wondered why it was that all the strongest men in history could get turned into mush by the touch of a woman, but the thought fled the instant she moved around to the front of him, pressing her mouth onto his, standing on her tiptoes.

~*~

Anaakii awoke early that morning as well. She felt refreshed and renewed, sitting on the edge of her bed, waiting for Pippen to come and show her around. She knew that this would be exciting, even if it might be a bit scary to see the infamous strays that even she knew about. She could hardly stand the anticipation.

Her eyes flashed upwards, lighting up, as the door opened. Pippen strolled in, offering her a cool, causal smile that immediately turned hers down. Something was amiss, she could tell, but she wasn’t exactly sure what. He seemed tense and distracted about something. She watched his face for a moment before trying out a smile, in an attempt to make him more open and friendly this morning.

“Good morning,” she offered.

Pippen nodded shortly. “Morning. Are you ready to go now? I have other things to do today.”

Startled, Anaakii nodded. “Yes, I am.” She stood up, starting to cross the room towards him, then frowned at the way he was watching her. “What’s wrong with you? You seem upset about something.”

“Never mind that. Don’t you know you’re not supposed to asking prying questions of someone you’ve just met?” he snapped, startling even himself with his shortness. He would’ve felt bad about it, only… only he was too upset with Skeet’s behavior the night before. There was something else, too, that he couldn’t quite put his finger on. Something about the way Zia had acted. Still, at the moment, he just knew that would much rather be trying to figure out what was wrong with his brother than to escort Anaakii around. He wanted to get it done and over with soon so that he could go on with what was troubling him more.

Anaakii’s lips pursed into a straight line, obviously trying to control a look of anger. “I wasn’t prying,” she replied evenly. “I just wanted to know why you seemed to be upset.” She eyed him, her face turning cool. “Forgive me for trespassing on your personal life.”

Pippen sneered. He took a step towards her, suddenly feeling his anger and frustration redirect itself towards the gray queen standing in front of him. “Don’t take that attitude with me. I saved your life, don’t forget.”

“Ha!” she spat. “How dare you think that I might've been killed. Do you really think that-”

Pippen laughed coolly. “Little girl, facts are facts. Who knows what Jasper had in mind for you, but it wasn’t anything good.” He shrugged. “Maybe you aren’t used to hearing this, but you’re very inexperienced and he would’ve killed you. Besides, if he hadn’t, someone else would’ve. You’re just lucky that you ran into me. I know the streets.”

“You say that as though it is good thing,” she said with a scowl. “Maybe you hadn’t thought of it, but perhaps not being used to the scum you live in is a good thing.”

Anaakii cried out as he grabbed her upper arm roughly, jerking her close to him. She tilted her head back to look into his face, trying to figure out what he found do to her. She half expected him to strike her, but instead, he growled.

“Don’t you dare call my people scum. If you had any idea of what the people here are like, you’d know better.” He eyed her angrily. “Plus, it’s not very smart to insult someone who is keeping you off of the streets.”

She jerked her arm away from him, rubbing her upper arm. “Take your paws off me,” she murmured softly. Her eyes betrayed her sudden fright of him. “Just leave me alone.”

Pippen started to say something, then shook his head, backing away from her quickly. He was startled by the way he had reacted to her. He’d never known himself to react so violently, if not physically, to anyone besides Raptor before. He was usually able to curb his temper in any situation, despite his rage at what was happening. But, he suddenly realized that she was making him react to her in such a way. He took a deep breath.

“Yes, of course, I will.”

Anaakii stared at him in confusion as he shook his head again, obviously as disturbed by his reaction as she was. He turned quickly around, walking from the room with long strides.

Anaakii stood in silence, her paw still resting on her upper arm. She was almost unaware that she was trembling. She shook her head quickly, then looked around. She didn’t want to stay here when and if he decided to come back to her. There was something very strange about him that made her nervous and uncomfortable.

She slipped from the room quickly, not really thinking about where she was going to go.

~*~

Skeet lifted his head drowsily from the bed he was resting on. He felt groggy and tired, not quite ready to face the world. He rubbed at his face, trying to force the sleepy feeling out of his body. He looked up, startled, as the door opened and a gray furred queen entered. She drew in a quick breath when she saw, both fear and anger on her face.

“What are you doing in here?” she demanded.

“What? Who are you?” he asked, sitting up, startled and frightened by this queen who looked like she wanted to rip his head off. She seemed to stare at him with something akin to rage and uneasy fright.

“What are you talking about?” she snapped. Then, her eyes widened. She took a hesitant step away from him. “Oh! Bast! You’re not Pippen, are you?” She blinked. “Who are you? You look just like him.”

“I… Skeet. My name’s Skeet.” He almost cringed against telling her that the hated Pippen was his brother. “Pippen’s my twin, which is probably the reason you got us mixed up. Who are you?”

Anaakii eyed him closely, as though curious as to whether or not she should trust him. Deciding that she might as well, she offered him a small smile. “Anaakii. I… was lost and Pippen brought me here. Well, not to this room, but to another room. He said I could stay there the night.” Her face reddened. “We got into an argument. And, he stormed away.”

Skeet finally stood, feeling silly sitting on his bed as she talked to him. “What about?”

“It wasn’t really much,” she lied, not feeling entirely comfortable telling him why his brother had become upset with her. “He had come to show me around and…”

Skeet nodded, touching her arm gently. Anaakii was startled, but knew better than to show it. “Well, I’ll tell you what. Don’t worry about him. I’ll show you around, then I’ll find him later on and sort things out.” He smiled, hoping to make her feel better.

Anaakii nodded, returning his smile. “All right. That sounds good to me.”

~*~

Pacer was sleeping, sprawled out like some kind of lazy, blob of fur. His paws were folded up over his nose, making it look as though the orange and white tom was lacking a face. He let out a startled cry, suddenly tumbling to the ground. Fur bristling out, he whirled around and hissed, freezing when he saw Raptor staring mildly at him, one eyebrow raised.

“Whaddya do that for?” the younger tom growled, trying to look as though his heart wasn’t going a hundred miles an hour. Raptor shrugged lazily, putting his head down on his forepaws, still staring blandly at Pacer.

“I was just wondering about something.”

“What? And, was it really so important that you had to try and scare the kitty litter out of me by waking me out a sound sleep?”

“Could be, yes.” The black tom yawned, his eyes drooping a little. Pacer sat up straighter, not trusting the lazy look of Raptor’s face. Usually, whenever he got this look, he was up to something of no good. “I was thinking what we should do about Skeet.”

“What about him?”

Raptor sighed. “I mean, because if we managed to get rid of both Macavity and Pippen, we still have Skeet to deal with.” He sneered. “And Macavity’s other kid. Vindonia. But, I honestly don’t think she’ll be any real challenge. You know she’s been living with the Jellicles for years now. No one’s seen her back here since… since the last Rebellion.”

Pacer eyed him warily. “How is Skeet a problem? He hardly seems to be the kind who would stand up and fight for himself, let alone the right to rule this place.”

“Perhaps, but I don’t really want to take this risk.”

“What do you suggest?”

“He has to die.”

Pacer stood, shaking his head. “Now, Raptor, couldn’t we just banish him? I mean, he wouldn’t be much trouble, would he? In fact, I bet we could just scare the crap out of him and he’d run away. No more worries for him, huh?”

“Yeah, that would be the nice way for things to work out, huh? Unfortunately, things don’t always work out the way you’d want them to, do they?” Raptor’s eyes momentarily flared with anger, then he looked down at the ground. “What if things decided not to cooperate with us? I won’t take any risks.” He eyed Pacer a moment before continuing. “It’s bad enough that Zia has a thing for Pippen, but the fact that she might try and stop me from getting rid of the Skeet threat is risk I’m not willing to take.”

“Zia’s already showing opposition to this?” Pacer asked, immediately regretting his comment. Raptor’s sharp eyes narrowed.

“Did I say that?”

“No. No, you didn’t.”

Raptor smiled. “Now, here’s what I want to happen…”

~*~

Leading her outside, Skeet glanced back to see how close behind Anaakii was. When he saw that she was immediately on his tail, he grinned, feeling more confident, and continued to walk. Pointing out a few things here and there, Skeet noticed with what fascination Anaakii seemed to take things in.

He stopped, sitting down. Looking around, he realized that they were a ways outside of the warehouse grounds. No need to worry, he reminded himself. Nothing bad would happen. After all, he could take care of himself, he thought, somewhat unsure about this thought.

“Sit down. Rest a moment?” he asked, knowing he sounded a bit dull witted by cutting his sentences down the way he did. He couldn’t entirely help. He never talked much, let Pippen do that for him, and when he did, he found that short, simple sentences worked.

“All right. My legs are getting a little tired,” Anaakii admitted, flopping down beside him. She ran her fingers through her head fur, looking around her. “So, this is your home, huh?”

“Well, the warehouse is. This is outside warehouse grounds.”

“Oh. Well, it’s nice out here, too.”

“I suppose so,” he said, looking around a second time. He gaze came back to Anaakii and he smiled. “Why are you fascinated with everything out here? Don’t get out much, do you?”

She laughed. “I guess you could say that. My parents and I, we used to live very secluded lives. Mom and Dad never really wanted to mix among the other cats that we knew of.”

“Why?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know for sure. I think they were scared.” She shook her head at his questioning look. “I don’t know that either. I just know that they thought it would be a bad idea to mix amongst the others. So, needless to say, I never really got to meet anyone, or see anything that I didn’t get to see every single day.”

Skeet tilted his head. “So, you ran away?”

“Not exactly. I left them, yes, but I’m old enough to be out on my own. I’m old enough to be who I want to be, you know?”

“Yeah… not to sound prying or anything, but who are your parents?”

“Pascal and Gracie. I don’t think you’d know of them.” He shook his head. “Only, they adopted me, so I’m not even sure who my blood parents are. But, that’s all right because I never knew them. I only know the parents who raised me and I don’t really care to know those who didn’t have anything to do with me except to make me and ditch me.”

“You think that’s what they did?”

“Well, my parents found me abandoned, with no signs of struggle. I’m imagining they just ditched me out there, on my own.”

“Wow,” Skeet breathed. “Even my dad wouldn’t do something like that.”

“Who’s your dad?”

Skeet caught her eye. “Macavity.”

“Macavity?” Anaakii gasped, drawing away from him for a moment. “How can that be? My parents always warned me to stay away from him.” She pressed a paw to her forehead. “If I had known, I would’ve never agreed to follow Pippen.”

“He’s not so bad, really,” Skeet murmured. “Not to me, at least.”

“That’s because he’s your father. Wow…” She smiled apologetically. “I’m sorry. It shouldn’t matter. You’re a nice enough guy.”

“You think so?” Skeet asked, grinning. “Don’t think I’m a bit of a dork?”

“Honey, all guys are like that.”

“How would you know? You just admitted you don’t know very many people.”

“Oh, shut up,” she laughed, pushing him slightly with her paw. “That’s not fair. Twisting my words around so that I can’t even make fun of you.”

“Well, why would I want that?”

“I dunno.”

They laughed again, then simply stared at one another in silence. Skeet finally looked away, rubbing the back of his neck.

“Maybe we ought to head back soon.”

“Why?”

“Well, it’s not so safe out here, I guess. I mean, there could be Pollicles or humans out here.”

“My father said that most humans are harmless and all Pollicles are too stupid to catch any cat.”

“Well, he might be right, but it does happen on occasion, or else, nobody would bother to be afraid of them, ya know? Come on.”

Skeet stood, reaching his paw down to help her to her feet. Anaakii stood, looking around.

“I suppose you’re right.”

Skeet nodded, starting to turn back towards the direction of the warehouse. Only, something didn’t seem quite right. The air suddenly felt tense and rigid. He spun abruptly, seeing Anaakii backing away from something he couldn’t see, but could smell and sense clear as though he could see them. Touching her arm, he swallowed harshly as Anaakii backed against him, pressing herself against him.

“What is it?” she asked, fear filling up within her.

“It’s… it’s a Pollicle,” he murmured, taking her closer in his arms and feeling panic rise up within him.


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