"Who are you?" 

"No one." 

C59 just nods, satisfied with my answer. "I'm sorry for this, C41," he says very quietly.

We're in my cell. I am not afraid. I'm actually quite calm. Everything about this situation is calming and soothing. C59 is squatting down in front of me.

"But he can't find you. If he does... He'll use you. You don't want to be used, right?"

"Right," I mutter and stare blankly at the wall. He has trained me well in the last two years. I am strong and hard. Nothing can break me.

"So you understand why I have to do this?"

"No," I answer honestly. 

"Because C41! If he finds you, he is going to destroy you! You're nothing to him. Only a weapon! Just like Nat! Don't you understand?"

I snap out of it and look at C59. "Where is Nat?"

"I tried to make you forget. I tried. But you can't forget her, can you? Because you're connected. They will find you one day and when that day comes... You won't be you anymore. They'll make you feral. They already tried, C41. Why do you think you're here?"

I blink and look at C59. "I don't... I can't remember..."

"No. But it'll be over soon, Nathan." 

"My name isn't Nathan." 

"Right." C59 smiles a sad smile and stands up. He has a knife in his hand. He puts his other hand on my shoulder and slams the knife in my stomach. I don't scream. I am too surprised by how much air gets knocked out of me.

He pulls out the knife and buries it in my stomach again. I grab his wrist and try to stop him, but his arm shoots forward again. My stomach is on fire, and I am lying on the floor. C59 is hovering over me with the knife still in his hands. 

"It'll be better this way, C41," he says softly.

I cough, and blood runs out of my mouth. I just keep staring up at him. My stomach feels sticky, and I put my hands on to it. I raise my hand and look at it. It's all red. My arm falls limply down next to me. I'm so tired. I know I should try and fight the sleep, but it's overtaking me.

I lied awake and watched the sun slowly rise beyond the trees in the garden. Che was on top of me, covering the scars on my stomach.

I had had the best night of my life, and it was completely ruined by that dream. And I was so confused by it. Who was he trying to save me from? And that was a real weird way of saving by the way! 

Che's warm breath hit my neck and kind of made me forget what I was thinking about for a minute. I had my arms around him, protecting him from... From what? We weren't in prison anymore. And he didn't really need my protection. I had already protected him against the dogs, wasn't that enough?

No. It never was.

I tightened my grip around him a bit. 

"Do you ever sleep?" he asked, sleep gruffing his voice. 

"On rare occasions," I replied and kept staring up at the sky. 

"Nightmares or memories?" He shifted a bit and found a better position before he relaxed again. 

"Memory." 

"New or old?"

"Both."

Che sighed deeply. "Which one?"

"Cal stabbing me. He said something about somebody trying to make me feral. That's why he had to kill me, to prevent whoever 'he' is to get to me. And he talked about Nat. About how we're connected and that's why I can't forget her."

Che put his hand on my stomach and stroked his thumb over one of the scars. "That doesn't really make any sense. You can't make people feral." 

"You think people are born feral?" I asked. 

"Yeah. It's something in their brain. Too much adrenaline is released all the time and stuff."

"So they can't help it," I concluded. Cal couldn't help he was the way he was. It kind of made it easier to swallow. All the shit he had done, was because of a flaw in his brain.

"No, but they still need to be stopped." 

"I agree."

Che pushed himself further up on my chest and hovered over me. "So you being here is not so bad after all?"

"Compared to prison no. Compared to a normal life? Yes. I don't want to fight anymore, Che. I don't want to learn how to shoot a gun. I don't want to do this anymore." I looked tiredly up at him. 

"I'm sorry," he said quietly. 

"It's not your fault."

"I found you. I turned their attention to you..." He cringed like I was going to hit him. 

"They would have found me regardless, wouldn't they?"

"Who knows really? You could still be there if it weren't for me..." 

I raised my arms, draped them around him and pulled him down to me. "This definitely beats prison," I murmured and stroked the top of his head.

Birdie and I walked down the hall kind of wasting time a bit. I had had one class in the morning and didn't have one until two hours later, so we just walked aimlessly about.

I stopped at a wall full of pictures. I recognised Birdie in one of them. He was younger, a lot younger. He was standing with a straight back looking into the camera with a serious look. 

"My graduation picture. They have a picture of each class. I think they even have my dad's here somewhere," Birdie said and looked down the hall. 

"How old were you?"

"16." 

"You were massive for a sixteen-year-old," I said earning a snort from Birdie. 

"I'll take that as a compliment. You should have seen Ryan though." He walked a few feet back and pointed at a picture. "Look."

I walked over to him a saw a picture of three boys standing next to each other, all with serious faces. It was obvious which one Ryan was. He had barely changed, though he was only bigger and wider now. 

"He was 14 here. He and these two boys had just killed a feral on the loose. That was his first. He fired the killing shot." 

"14 is not an age to be a killer," I muttered solemnly. 

Birdie just glanced down at me and shook his head in agreement. We kept walking down the hall, and he pointed out a couple of more pictures. I found one with Che as a kid and smiled. He used to be a little fat, his cheeks plumb. It was adorable. 

"Are you hungry? I could go for some tea or something," Aidan said and scratched his stomach. 

"Have the British tainted you?" I asked and snorted.

"The Brits don't have the merits on tea," Aidan replied, and half smiled.

We walked out of the building and over the grass. The weather was great. Not too hot for once. We sat down at a little café not far from campus.

I hadn't actually been outside of the campus, since our hiking trip and it felt different. I felt kind of exposed.

"Birdie, is this a good idea?" I asked quietly and looked around at the people in the café. 

"Relax, Nathan. Everybody here is from the Academy, and they all know not to talk to outsiders about the programme. Believe me, nobody wants to put their career on the line for a little cash." He handed me my tea, and we sat down outside. "So, how are you liking your classes?"

"I like biology and maths." I took a sip of my tea and frowned. "Did they dump a truck of sugar in this?"

"This is America, we dump a truck of sugar in everything," Birdie chuckled. "So definitely not combat training, computer science or shooting?"

"None of the above." 

I looked around at the people sitting outside. Most of them were about my age, enjoying a free period. Maybe I even looked like a normal student, though none of them was bald. I ran my hand over my head, kind of wishing I hadn't shaved all of it off.

"Is Nathalia doing okay?" Birdie asked. 

"Well..." I took a deep breath and leaned back in my chair. "She is angry."

"Yeah, that's a pretty good word for her. Was she always like that?"

"I wouldn't know."

"Ah, yeah. I guess you wouldn't..."

"I wish I could make her happy though," I muttered and started pressing down on a piece of candy wrapper left on our table.

"I think you just being there for her is enough. You're very close already, aren't you?"

"We're connected. It's... Hard to explain." 

"Because you're identical twins?"

"I think it's more than that. I mean, I had forgotten her, but I knew something was missing because the animal was so restless." Birdie frowned a bit. "I know it sounds crazy."

"No, not at all. I just didn't expect you to be so open about the animal. Not a lot of people are." 

"I don't understand why. It's a part of us all, isn't it?"

"Yeah, but not a lot of people have a strong connection to it. Like how there are fewer and fewer shifters. Especially cats. You and your sister are definitely a minority. Now how did you know I'm a shifter?"

"I just know." I shrugged.

"I've never met anybody who could tell before." 

"The more in touch people are with the animal, the more they move like said animal. I know what animal people are too if that makes a difference." 

Birdie looked to think that over. "So what are those two girls over there?"

I looked over and snorted. "Fish and dog. Come on." I stopped smiling. He didn't know. He couldn't see it. "I thought everybody could see it." 

"No, I've never met anybody who could see it. It's not very obvious most of the time. I mean, yeah, you and your sister are very obvious with the yellow eyes, sharp canines and all, but the rest of the population? Not so much. Have you ever told anybody?"

"Well... Cal knew. But he could do it too. I'm sure Nat knows how as well. I never really thought about telling anybody."

Don't tell, C41. You understand? You don't tell. I shook my head. Just another thing Cal had made me do.

"Scratch that. Cal told me to not tell anybody."

"Well, it's a unique gift. He probably didn't want anybody to know, because it made you valuable to others than just him. I mean, it's not even in your file." 

I bit down on my lip. So this was not a normal thing. I kept getting more and more weird, and it was kind of starting to piss me off.

"Che." 

He made a 'hmm' sound and looked up at me from his book. 

"Am I weird?" 

He broke into a smile. "Well, eccentric is a better word for you."

"So that's a yes?" I said flatly and leaned back in the couch. Che closed his book and packed up his stuff.

"Why are you asking?"

"I just talked to your brother today, and I realised I'm weird." 

"Weird how?" He cocked his head to the side. 

"You know how I can tell if people are shifters? I can tell what animal they are too. I thought everybody could, but apparently not..."

"That doesn't make you weird, Nathan. That makes you unique," Che said and smiled. He slowly wrapped his fingers around my hand and moved his thumbs over the back of it.

"I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing."

"I have an IQ over 130, it makes me pretty weird too. But do you think I'm weird?"

"No." I couldn't help but smile. Che was the opposite of weird.

"See? Being unique is not a bad thing out in the real world. Standing out of a crowd is good. To be good at something. Especially in a place like this." He leaned forward and kissed me on the cheek. He let go of my hand and laced his fingers around my neck. I turned my head towards him and met his lips. I rose to my knees and sat down in his lap.

"You're special, not weird," he murmured and ran his hands over my chest. I inhaled sharply, and I felt him smile. "I love you."

"I love you too," I murmured back, actually liking how it sounded. Liked how it felt saying it.

His rough hands ran over my stomach and hips, and I closed my eyes so I could enjoy his touch to the fullest.