She was alone, watching the last of her squad fade into the night, Mal catching one last look, her fingers raising in what had to be a wave. Monsters could be heard hissing in the background, still far enough away that they wouldn't see her fleeing pack, but Cat knew they could follow their scents. What scared Cat and saying that was a milestone in itself was their was another smell that filled the air, one she hadn't caught wind of since before she began her hunt for the Browncoats.

Her long fingers reached for the solid black cat suit she carried, like a second skin that would help her enhanced body blend into the darkness she called home. It would give her the advantage, though truly she didn't need it.

Reavers were stupid eating machines, not as smart as what they liked people to believe. They counted on fear and the knowledge that it didn't matter to them if they lived or died, as long as there was lots of blood shed in the wake. Although, the creatures coming weren't exactly your common variety. She had felt the control collar on the neck of the one she had killed and knew someone out there was on the other end of the box. In fact, it surprised her that the critter's head didn't exploded after it died. The Academy couldn't have anyone stumbling upon their failures, least of all the Alliance.

Maybe that was why Cat shooed away Mal. The Academy didn't want any survivors. Wouldn't they just shit when they learned one of their own was helping to keep this particular target alive and well.

Something to the east of her moved as she issued a hard growl, one that sounded more animal than human. Her long fangs fell from her mouth as well as the claws that had lay dormant for several months. It was high time for her beast to earn its bloody keep. Besides, wasn't this what the Academy had designed her for.

A Reaver emerged from the group of trees as her body twisted to face it. For a moment, the critter just stood there, something in its pee brain warning it to retreat, but nothing would convince it when blood and meat were involved. Long claws to its face would be the last thing it would see, lit by the blinking lights of the collar round its neck.

The body landed by her feet, eyes focused on the shadows moving around her. Mostly, trees and bushes, her ever sharp eyes surveyed for any type of movement out of the ordinary. The ordinary....Cat had to laugh at the thought. She was not even close to that word and yet, here in the midst of darkness and death, she stood her ground, to protect that which she was meant to kill. How long ago she had been on the other side looking in.

Another emerged from the bushes followed by two more. They were slowly gathering in numbers, something Cat knew wasn't normal, but manufactured by man. Why waste their troops if one or two could get the job done? Had they been using these monsters for awhile now?

Her body felt contact as she ripped the throat out of the one and broke the neck of the other with a nice roundhouse kick. Unfortunately, it left her open to the long, filed teeth of the last. Biting her in the shoulder, Cat roared in anger, fingers sinking into the Reaver's eye sockets as she pulled it over her body, stomping its head with her boot.

Blood poured from the teeth punctures as Cat tried hard to keep her beast in check. If she went on a rampage, she would never be able to get answers from the man behind the massive monster mob. If the smells she was receiving were right, she knew there was a prize to be had at the end of this sick rainbow and damned if she was gonna mess that up for anything.

Taking a deep breath, Cat could smell the stench of the Reavers, but it wasn't nearly as strong as the scent of her old home, that cage they slammed her in when something she did wasn't proper or obedient. She smiled at that thought, fangs catching light...suffice to say, Cat 1313 spent a lot of time behind bars.

Something sharp in her arm made her hiss as she turned and saw the three inch feathered spike, its payload enough tranquilizer to take down a large elephant. Her lips curled in a nasty growl, even though she could feel her body beginning to shut down. The last thing she saw before darkness overwhelmed her were a pair of pale blue eyes that hadn't been kind in a long damn time.

********

“Wakey...Wakey...Cat 1313.” A stiff voice echoed in her throbbing head and with a jump, her eyes opened to find herself back in the bunker Mal and squad had been in only a few hours before. She sat in a metal chair, smart of her capturer since a wooden one posed so many ways to kill. Hands were secured behind her with chains much heavier than any normal human would need. Of course, Cat had never been normal.

Her tongue ran across her teeth, their pointed ends only that, no longer the fangs she had started this little killing spree with. Even though she couldn't feel them exactly, her fingers were as human as they had ever been. The beast side of her must be still asleep, which was a comfort and a disadvantage.

“You have been a bad girl,” the voice that had awoken stated as she shook her fuzzy head to clear it, the pain from the tranqs drugs still working their way out of her system, and even with the higher immunity and her healing current, it still was a pain in the ass.

“Depends on who you talk to.” She managed a rebuttal before swallowing back a pay load of her own from the turning stomach. There were two things in life Cat wished they had done away with when creating her, throwing up because tasting your own vomit again is just wrong and headaches, something even highly advanced creatures seemed to have in common.

“My sources tell me you are running with a different crowd lately.” It was the man from before, who had given her the orders. Around him were Reavers in cages, hissing at him to be free to tear at his guts and dine on his flesh. Cat smiled at the thought of obliging them.

“They pay better.” She growled, thinking of Mal's humor as she did.

“Cat 1313, what have they done to you?” He moved to get closer as she pulled against her restraints snapping at him.

“Freed me.” Her voice whispered.

“You were suppose to kill him. Not make nice.” His hand connected with her face before she had time to react. “You directly violated your programming.”

“So fire my ass.” Her lips curled up in a massively pissed off grin. “You play God and then get mad when your creation begins to evolve.”

“We wanted you to evolve into a killing machine, a perfect solider...not a flawed human.” He ran a hand through his dusty brown hair.

“And what? Be like them.” Her head inclined to the Reavers, who had been pushing at the bars so much, they were now red with blood.

“Not at all.” He spoke softly, like a daddy does when explaining something important to his little girl. “We don't want monsters, Cat. We want control.”

“Then get yourself a damn robot.” She growled straining again at the chains.

“What kills me here is that I have to go back and tell them you were a failure.” His fingers reached for the long knife at his side. Even Cat knew she couldn't live without a head.

“We could just keep it our little secret.” She smiled, flattening her feet on a medium size rock.

“If only...Alliance sees one of our creation helping the Independents and it would require way too much explaining. You understand?” He moved toward and Cat smiled.

“Actually, no!” Her legs straightened giving her the momentum to dump the chair over backwards. With a snap, the big rock behind her caused her right shoulder to dislocate and give her just enough room to work her way out of her chains.

“Damn you!” She heard the man with the knife say as her long legs pulled her up.

“Funny, that's what my Sargent says to me sometimes, too.” Cat smiled, cradling her useless shoulder. Unfortunately, unlike her wounds, it would have to be popped back in before it could heal properly.

“He's not your...” He stopped when there in her hand was the small black box, blinking its little green light at him. “You wouldn't. Sentence us both to death.”

“I don't think so.” She smiled looking to each of the four cages. “They can sense I'm a danger. You on the other hand....aren't. Besides, what more do I have to live for? I'm a failure.”

“I was wrong.”

“No, you weren't.” Her finger touched the button as the cage doors released and the mob of red and teeth exploded over them. Cat caught his eyes for a moment, the terror so real on his face that it was almost hypnotic. “What have you done?” His eyes stared out over her as she turned and spotted Mal, gun at the ready and Zoe next to him jaws dropped in horror of the dark mob covering the ground around them.

“Opened their eyes to the truth.”

"What truth?"

"That there are far more dangerous things than just a bunch of purple bellied bureaucrats set on ruling the world." She growled moving to come between her people and the advancing horde. Looking again to the man in front of her, Cat's fangs caught the light for a second, the creator shaking his head before the first monster reached him. Whispered so quietly that only he could hear it over the crowd, Cat spat. “See you in hell.”