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His eyes fluttered open again, days on end being tortured finally weighing in on his hardened nerves.

His hands strapped to a steel table, body strapped to a steel chair, even with his fur and body heat it never got warmer.

Unless they made it red hot.

The sound of a door opening, the darkness was lifted and a light came on.

"It's been almost a month, Tai. We'll let you go, I just want you to answer my questions."

The emaciated corpse sitting at the table didn't acknowledge anything.

A sigh.

"I don't want to do this any more than you do. And frankly, I've tried everything. I'm going to be honest with you. I have no idea anymore."

That voice leaned into the light, attaching a body to it.

Tiger female.

His mind ripped to shreds, all he could tell was sex and species.

"So I consulted a few of my... friends. And they offered me an easy solution."

A photograph.

That was the word for it...?

He'd forgotten.

He didn't even know if this was Arabic or Euro Common he was hearing.

With all the strength he could amass the cat lifted his head, dried blood and new blood turning his once white fur ragged and red.

"What's... On the photograph...?"

With a frown, the tigress tilted it slightly.

"You can't see it?"

A blank stare.

She should have known better, it took him a full minute to register some things.

"Amira must have broke you for good... But it's your friend. The masked one. With a gun to her head."

A short buzzing noise.

The tigress looked around- the lights were too efficient for such but she realized it came from the cat.

His mouth was open, blood dripping slightly out of it.

This was the after shot.

"You want to see another one of her without the mask?"

He gave no response, she expected as such.

Taking another picture from her briefcase, she set it on the first one.

Watching the cat's eyes slowly move down, he blinked slowly.

"There's your proof. Answer or she dies."

It was another thirty seconds before he tore his eyes from the picture.

"...She's not afraid to die."

"What?"

The cat's eyes drifted back down.

"I... I forgot her name..."

She saw tears begin to well up, what could fall began to stream down his face.

Just another liquid that was supposed to stay on the inside.

"Garcia..."

"He's not coming for you this time."

"N-No..."

The tigress began to grow impatient.

"We have your whole gang in rooms just like these, we can kill them at a moment's notice. Now answer me! What happened on October 17th, 2140?!"

"I-I don't know!"

"Yes the fuck you do! I'll scrape it out of your skull if I have to!"

"Stop.. Please..."

"What was Project Alcatraz?! Why were you involved?!"

"I-I wasn't there! I wasn't even born"-

The slap to his face was like iron driven into his core, shattered body caving in.

A cry of anguish.

"You've woken up, I see..."

"I'LL KILL ALL OF YOU!"

His eyes lit up and she raised the gun but it was too late.

The world began to slow down, klaxon's light flooding through the tocsin, blare replaced by a low buzz, the same she had heard earlier.

The tigress watched in horror as a shape materialized in front of the table.

Unaffected by the detour in time, the coyote gave her a glare and then the lights flickered.

She fell to her knees, gagging and coughing...

And when she looked up...

Tai was gone.

///

"Kid. If you're dead I'm going to be real pissed, I went thought a lot to bust you out..."

Giving a groan as he had many times before, an ache racked his entire body.

"I... I don't think I can move..."

The cat opened his eyes again.

"Where are we?"

"The old compound... You remember, right?"

Staring into the coyote's eyes, a shake of the head no.

"You remember me? Garcia?"

Another no.

"Amira fucked you up real bad..."

He gave a sigh.

Garcia...

It sounded familiar. That's what the tigress said.

...

What tigress?

All he remembered...

Kaige.

Yes, Kaige. The memories flooded back, painful and emotional and intimate...

He gave a sharp intake, cold of the compound battered away only with a fire and a blanket.

Garcia... Whoever it was, the coyote, was pacing a few feet away, trying to get something from his bag leaning on the wall.

"I found one of these, you were asking for one? Not that it matters much now, I guess..."

He held up a black rectangular object, about the size of a brick, but metallic with some sort of logo on it.

Three green triangles, stacked atop each other.

"It was laying around in storage. Dunno if it still works but give it a shot."

He nonchalantly tossed it but realized too late.

Unable to raise his hands, it hit Tai in the stomach, eliciting a grunt.

"Sorry."

"...What is it?"

"Recording device. You were trying to send that girl a message? Karley?"

"Kaige... I remember her..."

"Women are too complex, you shouldn't bother."

"...You live in an abandoned compound in Antartica."

"Fuck you too, kid."

Staring at the three triangles, it reminded him of another girl.

Trojan...

Wrenching the thought from his already damaged mind, he remembered what he wanted to do.

Maybe it would help with his apparent amnesia.

"I'm going to start recording now, so be quiet."

An intake as Garcia was about to speak, but thought better of it.

"Oh- and Clark?"

"Ah, see? Remembering stuff already. Now call me Garcia, dipshit."

"Yeah... Thanks for coming back for me."

"...I mean, you spoke to him. You're too valuable now."

The cat smiled to himself.

"Alright. I'm going to start at Gibraltar, we're going to get to... Maybe Thailand in this first recording. Actually, maybe just before Thailand, that's a long time."

He took a breath.

"...But I want to go ahead and tell you, if you show this to the GRA or Jinn or whoever you're working for these days... They'll kill you for knowing too much."

Another breath as Garcia watched with mild interest.

"Janus disease, Project Alcatraz, faked Jinn attacks, espionage, murder... I mean, now it's a cup of tea, but... I can't say Gibraltar doesn't still haunt me. We'll start there."

///