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"I don't want your apologies! I want you!" The teen shouted at the man. Her voice came out as a pain filled wail. She wanted to scream at him. To release all of the held in sadness and anger she felt of him abandoning her. Of abandoning Tohma. He had no idea how much of a void there was in her heart since his disappearance. She lost her brother at such a young age that she truly believed that he was dead. She had this believe until two years ago. Until Tohma told her something that he made her swear to never tell another soul. Mahri hears him move from the couch over to her, his fingers running through her hair. She didn't move from his touch. Instead she just stands there, allowing her tears to flow freely. "Oh. So you decided to become a part of our lives only to leave us behind just for the fun of it. Forcing us to worry and wonder what had happened to you." Her arms were dangling by her sides, but her hands were clenched into fists. She was getting angry now on top of being upset. She wanted to hit him. To hurt him like he had hurt her. "You left without even a goodbye, Kass! That wasn't fair to Tohma and me! We thought you were dead, don't you understand that?!" Her clenched fist seemed to act with a mind all its own as it raises up from her side and she punches him hard in his chest. It wasn't the kind of strength a fourteen year old girl should have. It had enough force to make him take back a step or two back.

"This is cruel, and what were you trying to save us from? That fact that you lied about loving us? That you actually don't care about us?!" She takes a step forward and with the same arm she punches him again, causing him to take another step or two backwards until his back hit the other wooden panel across from her. "I hate you, Kass! I hate you, I hate you, I hate you!" Her voice raises in volume. Hate was never a word that came past her lips often. Never has she used it against someone who she loved dearly like him. Even though she was screaming at him that she hated him, deep in her heart she didn't. She couldn't bring herself hate Kass. After all that he put her and Tohma through, she still loved him. For a moment the girl just stood there, panting slightly from hitting him and screaming at him. The tears had slowed to some degree. Her eyes were avoiding his own. She felt better at least. Getting off what she was feeling inside and off of her shoulders. Hesitantly Mahri takes a step towards Kass, unsure if he would move away from her after getting punched twice. When she looked up from the floor to see that he was still standing there, she takes another step, her arms stretched out so that she would wrap them around his waist and hug him. "I'm sorry," She whispers, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean it."

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Her tiny arms squeezed him in her hug, her face being buried in his shirt. She was afraid after her little outburst. She was afraid that he was going to tell her goodbye for the first time and the last time and he was going to leave for good. All because of what she said. "I'm sorry. . ." She whispers again, her fingers grabbing onto the fabric of his shirt. His arms wrap around her. This make her tighten her own embrace. Her head lay against his chest. She could hear the beat of his heart, feeling it thumping to it's own steady rhythm. It was soothing to her. "I don't think I could ever understand, Kassie. Why hurt us to the point where we start to not love you? Is it. . .is it because of what happened with Tohma the day before you left?" Mahri looks up to him, a tear hidden in the corner of her eye rolls down the side of her face. The event she was referring to was one that he had sworn her to never tell another person. It was about Kass, though, so it would be okay for her to tell him, right? "I love you too, Kassie."

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Unconsciously the girl leans her head into the palm of his gloved hand, her hand raising to hold his there against her cheek. When had Kass started wearing gloves? It felt strange. Feeling rubbery texture rubbing against her pale skin. She lowers his hand from her cheek, her eyes on the glove he wore. She brings her other hand up from her side. While one hand held onto his wrist the other started to pull on the fingers of the gloves, loosening it so that it could be pulled off easily. She had no idea what was hidden underneath it. What Kass was trying to keep her from seeing. "It was payment day for us. Mom and dad were busy on the wall, so Tohma had to take the payment to the lab that day." Her voice was small now, but still had a sad tone tucked into it. All the while she was pulling on the fingers of the gloves. The little bugger didn't want to come off. "That day is the reason why Tohma blames himself for your disappearance. What he told me he saw. . .made him think that the Lab Corp had you killed. He thought he was the reason why you left." The glove was loosening more and more as she continued to work at it. Kass hadn't tried to stop her yet. Key word here was "yet." "When Tohma went into the building he saw no one there. No guards. No staff. No one was out front like usual. Being that he was just fourteen, he went to look for someone in charge. So that he could pay them and get back home to me." Mahri takes a moment to pause. Should she keep going on with the story? Would Tohma get mad at her for telling it to him? It had to do with him, so it wouldn't be that big of a problem, would it? The girl sighs, then continues on.

"He wandered around for a while, not being able to find a single person in that building. He found himself in an area where he shouldn't have been. He didn't realize what he had found at first. It was a room with a medical bed and one of the chairs that I used to sit in while they looked at my eyes. There were people there that was for sure, and they were watching something. His curiosity got the better of him and he creeps closer into the room." The glove on Kass's hand was almost off now. It was just loose enough that with a single tug it could come off. This part of the story was hard for her. It was hard for her to even hear when Tohma finally told her. It made her wonder what Lab Corp was doing was for the interest of the city and not for themselves. Maybe that was why he was so assertive in her not wanting to go back there. She sighs once more. "What he saw he'll never be able to un-see. It was you. He saw you. You were strapped down into the bed with restraints. There were. . .so many machines attached to you. So many tubes and IV's stuck everywhere. He said you were screaming bloody murder. He described you as a wild animal trying to escape from its cage." Mahri bites her bottom lip, her eyes moving from his hand to his face. "You weren't the Kass we knew. There was hate in your eyes. Blood lust. The doctors all just stood and watched you struggle. It wasn't until you looked in a certain direction is when you calmed down immediately. Instead of hate being in your eyes at that moment, there was fear. You saw Tohma standing in the room behind all of the doctors." She looks back down to his hand and starts to tug on the loose glove, it starting to slide off so easily. She never did like wearing gloves. Even in the winter. It always made the tops of her hands feel weird.

"The head doctor noticed the direction you were looking and spotted him. Security picked him up and literally threw him out the doors, taking the payment from him and threatening him to not come back unless he was with our parents or with me. Even to this day he isn't allowed in there without me, but he can't go into the room with me now. He has to wait in the waiting area." With a final tug, the glove comes off. The girl smiles, letting it fall to the ground and she raises it back to her cheek, wanting to feel the skin of his hand on her cheek. She was startled to feel that it was so cold to the touch. Was Kass cold? Oh well. She didn't care if he was or not. Mahri keeps his hand there for another moment or two before letting it go and kneels down to grab his glove from the floor. "Ever since then Tohma has blamed what he saw that day on you disappearing. Seeing you like that. . .it not only scared him, but it made him wonder what they were doing to you that day. What they were experimenting on with you." The girl didn't seem to be even paying attention to his now bare hand. The one he kept hidden from sight. It was like it wasn't even there to her. Kass was Kass. Not a monster that he always thought of himself as. Her icy blue eyes look up to the man once more, curiosity and concern glinted in both of them at the same time. "Kass, tell me. What happened to you? What did they do to you that day?"

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After having finished the long story she had promised her brother to never speak of again, Kass seemed to remember what she was talking about. His voice was quiet. Was he regretting that Tohma had seen it or worried that she knew about what had happened to him? The teen hands him his glove back, but takes his now bare hand in hers with a smile. She didn't seem fearful of him as he probably had imagined. Sure it was a bit cold to touch, but it wasn't that bad. She could get used to it. With his hand in hers, she walks the two of them back into the living room area so that they could sit down on the love seat. Mahri listens intently to his story. The truth about what happened to him and why what Tohma saw had occurred. She frowns after he called himself a monster. She squeezes his hand. "You aren't a monster. You're still you. Even if they did stuff to you, you can still be who you were. Right? Can't you control that other side of you?" Oh how this small child didn't know that what was hidden inside of him couldn't be controlled. Much like the monster inside of her couldn't be controlled either. It came out whenever it wanted. Or at least when ever it was hungry for blood and flesh. Kass leans in close to her, his breath tickling her ear. They were doing it to her? How could he tell? Kass says that he could smell it, but to her it seemed impossible. "How can you tell? I mean. . .what is the smell like?" He places another kiss upon her forehead before he moves away. "Tell that to Tohma. He's been blaming himself for years. He thought he was the reason you disappeared and possibly gotten you killed." What Kass says makes Mahri worried. Was that why Kass was back in the Metro? To kill those who made him this way? What would that do if he succeeded? Not all of the doctors there were bad. Only the ones who liked to do experiments. Not only that, but it would make him stoop to their level. "You shouldn't kill them because of what they did, Kassie. That would mean you're stooping to their level. Do you want to do that?"

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"Really?" She was disheartened. Hearing that there was no possible way for her to control whatever was inside of her. The monster that was still in hibernation. Or she thought of as being in hibernation. Little did she know that the blackouts she endured were her waking that monster within her. The one that craved blood and flesh. She raises her hand and lets her fingertips trail along the tendrils that she could see, following the direction they went before he covers them with his shirt once more. This made her wonder. If Lab Corp was doing the same thing to her they had done to Kass, shouldn't she have those same tendrils across her skin? If she did, she hadn't even noticed them before. Not thinking, she pulls her arm from the sleeve of her shirt and looks down to her skin, examining it to see if the were there. They weren't. So if she was becoming like him, why didn't she have the same ones? Puzzled, Mahri puts her arm back into her sleeve, pulling up her shirt since it had been lowered slightly.

How he answered her question on how he knew she was becoming like him was an interesting one. Like a dog sniffing out a disease. She wondered if she would have picked up on it when she hugged him, or got close to him. She couldn't recall if he did or not. The smell was something along the lines of iron. Iron? Wasn't that a metal or something? "It's blood! Iron is blood!" A sudden voice fills her head, causing her to jump. Oh no. It was her. Not again. She had been so quiet, why did she have to come back? "I want blood now. Soooooo much blood to be mine..." "Shut up!" The girl mutters to herself, shaking her head a few times before the voice finally slips away. Had Kass noticed the sudden jump? The quiet voice telling herself to 'shut up?' He'd think she was crazy. Though, he probably thought the same thing when telling her the truth, and she didn't think he was crazy. She wanted to ask if he heard voices in his head, but didn't want to bring it up yet. So much had been said that day already. One little thing like the voices could wait a few days.

The young girl frowns. What Kass was wanting to do would not only solidify his feelings about himself being a monster, but also solidify the fact that these people had succeeded in their testings. They had made the monster they wanted. Perhaps they were wanting him to return to the city. To kill them. Just to show off what they could do. What their creation could do. Showing him off as some carnival act. Mahri sits on the arm of the love seat and brings her knees up onto the couch, her elbows sitting on top of her knees. "Even if they've done all of that, don't you think they're expecting you to return someday? So that you show off what they created like some freak at a circus?" She closes her eyes, sighing softly. She didn't want him to go off on a murdering spree. They may have deserved it, but that would only further prove the monster they wanted him to be. The girl moves from the arm back onto the cushion, but lays down to where her head was in his lap, her legs bent over the arm. She looks up at him, her doe eyes gazing into his own. "They may have stolen us from you. They may have stolen your life from you. All of that may have happened, but it can change if you just let it, Kassie."" She finds his gloved hand once more and takes a hold of it, bringing it to her chest so that he could feel her heart beating. "You being back here means you can have the life you used to have. The life you had stolen from you. You being back here means you have Tohma and I back. The ones you love and care so deeply for. Please, don't allow their actions against you force you to take ones you're going to regret. Don't let them affect you anymore, Bubby." She was pleading to him again. Wanting him to not go through with what he had planned. Usually the name "Bubby" was reserved for Tohma only, but she was in a bind. She needed him to let go of what happened all those years ago. Only then will he be able to live a normal life like he once did. Mahri gives Kass's hand a squeeze, a gentle smile on her face.

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"But. . .Kass. . ." There was no point in trying to sway him from his thoughts. He was there for only one thing and that was to get revenge on those who made him this way. Kass was a stubborn man. Even from when she was young she could remember his stubbornness. It reminded her of Tohma and how ungodly stubborn he could be. It frustrated her some times with how he was. The simplest of things she wanted to do he wouldn't allow her to. Such as having a weapon to defend herself with. He would always say "You don't need a weapon in the apartment, Mahri. You're safe here." She releases his hand and looks away with disappointment. "What if there are already others, Kass? What then? What has been done to them is something they can't change. Much like you can't change yourself." The girl closes her eyes. She was still trying to convince him to not become the horrid monster they had created. She knew she shouldn't try, but she couldn't help it. "So what if you kill them now? The damage has already been done." Mahri opens her eyes, sighing softly. "I haven't forgotten how stubborn you are. Heck you're just as bad as Tohma, so I might as well stop trying to convince you not to do this." The girl chuckles to herself. Ahh. The typical teenager. Getting frustrated because things aren't going their way. Well, she wasn't getting frustrated about it not going her way. More she was getting frustrated at him. She returns her gaze to him, a more serious look upon her face now. Did he really mean what he said? That he would be hers now and after what he wanted to do? She bites her bottom lip, unsure and hesitant of if he was meaning what he said. "How can I be sure that you won't disappear on me again after you're done with what you come back home to do?" She sits up from his lap, her hair falling in front of her face. "It's like you said before. You. . .never intended to come back into our lives."

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The teen seemed to be staring off into space, but she was actually staring at the class of water that was sitting on the coffee table in front of her. He told her that the people at the lab were doing to her what they had done to him. They were making her into a killing machine. She has no recollection of doing anything wrong. Nothing at all. Surely she would remember if she did kill someone, but, maybe she couldn't. Who knew? "You may think that I don't understand, but I do. You want revenge for what they've done to you; you want to make sure they don't create anymore of us. That's understandable, but personally, I wouldn't do that. Not out of being selfish, but more to keep the humanity that I have left before it's swallowed up whole by. . .whatever it is inside of me." Mahri couldn't help but giggle a little, feeling Kass's fingers tucking her hair behind her ear. It was a tickle spot of hers. That and the bottoms of her feet were the two places that were ticklish. Unlike most people who were ticklish on their sides. "I suppose you could have." The girl says softly. Her hand moves from her lap to be placed on top of his hand that was placed atop her shoulder.

His next words made her entire body tense up. Tohma was in danger because of her. How could he be, though? Never once has she ever hurt him other than a playful punch or two. "He isn't really in danger from me, is he?" Mahri didn't want to believe it. She would never hurt her brother. She loved him too much to hurt him. Then she gasps, her already doe like eyes widen. "The bite marks. . ." Her voice could barely be even heard. It was like she hadn't even said anything at all, but there was just enough air for the words to slip through. There were bite marks on Tohma's arms often strangely from out of no where. He would get angry at her because she had bitten him really hard, but she could never recall doing it. "Tohma tastes good. Hehe!" The voice giggles in her head. "I like nibbling on him. I've been so tempted to just eat him while he's sleeping. So peaceful he looks while he's unconscious." As if there was a projection screen in front of her, the memories of the other side of her was playing. Her eyes were set on Tohma as he slept peacefully in his bed. His arm recently bandaged from her last bite.

"I could have killed him then, but it's too much fun getting little tastes of him. Savoring his flavor until-" "No! I won't let you hurt him anymore!" Mahri suddenly shouts, tears running down her cheeks once more; holding onto both sides of her head. Both of her small hands hit the sides of her head, wanting the voice to stop talking. Wanting it to just leave her alone. "Go away!!" She shouts again. "I don't want to hear you anymore!!" "Hehehe. You can't get rid of me, little one. You're stuck with me. Till the day you die. By then, everyone you'll ever love will die by your hand. Just as planned." "SHUT UP!!" The girl falls to her knees, her fingers turning bone white as she grips her hair. Her tiny frame was trembling. If she wasn't careful, she would black out, and then the monster would be able free itself from its locked cage in the back of her mind. She falls onto her side and curls up into a ball, her chest heaving from her silent sobs. Why wouldn't the voice just leave her alone?