A/N: I know this isn’t the greatest story I’ve ever written…but just one reviewer? Come on people…we can do better than this. Although…I am grateful to have my one loyal reviewer. *waves* Thanks for sticking with it.

Disclaimer: I don’t own anyone…or anything….but I would love to have Fayt’s ability to explode on people that harass me. Take that!

It had been a month and a half since they had been captured. Albel was still being dragged out into the hallway to be drugged and be fitted with a new collar. Fayt watched week after week hopelessly as Albel remained calm and way too happy. However, there had been a slightly glitch in the proceedings that gave him a glimmer of hope.

That day, there was a significant change in Albel’s behavior. It was early morning, the day he was due to have his collar changed. He was restless and agitated. He paced around his cell, complaining that his neck was itching. He started tugging on his collar.

For the first time, Fayt had hope. Albel was finally adjusting to whatever drugs they were giving him. He would be able to be his old self again for at least a little while before they drugged him again. Fayt’s heart soared as Albel muttered about how the guards were going to pay for stuffing him in jail.

When the guard came by to bring breakfast, he noticed Albel’s odd behavior. He dropped the trays of food and ran for backup. Three guards returned to haul Albel out into the hallway. Albel struggled against them, but they overpowered him and dragged him down the hallway out of sight.

Albel was returned to his cell an hour later, led in shackles. It was just like the first day. From what Fayt overheard from one of the guards, one of the syringes had broken. Albel wasn’t getting the full dose so it was wearing off sooner. Just to be sure Albel wouldn’t return to his murderous self, they had upped the dosage and they planned to change his collar every three days.

They shoved Albel back into his cell and shoved breakfast in after him. Albel stood listlessly, his face blank and expressionless.

Fayt waited for Albel to adjust to the new dosage and become the new kinder Albel. But it didn’t happen. The cycle of collar change came and went. Albel still spoke only when spoken to and stood in the corner of the cell, staring blankly at the wall.

“Please,” Fayt whispered. “Albel, I want you back. I want you here.”

Albel turned and gazed at Fayt as if he was looking beyond him. “I am here,” Albel said stiffly.

“No,” Fayt said quietly. “You’re not. I want you how you used to be.”

“I can become what you want me to be.”

“No, you can’t.” Fayt shook his head slowly. “Unless you want to be how you were, it’s useless.”

“I want to be what you want me to be.”

Fayt burst into tears.

That night, Fayt cried himself to sleep while Albel curled up in his corner. When Fayt woke the next morning, he realized it wasn’t a dream and he began sobbing again. Albel sat on the ground, staring off into space.

As the guard came by to bring breakfast, he heard Fayt wailing disconsolately. “Oh shut your mouth,” the guard growled. “You’re carrying on like we’re torturing you.”

Fayt grasped the bars of his cell and looked the guard right in the eye. “You are torturing me. Every second that Albel sits around in this stupor is like a kick in the face to me.”

The guard grinned. “So, you two are lovers, eh?”

“Yes we are,” Fayt said firmly. “And Apris help you if you don’t give him back to me.”

The guard snickered and shoved the trays of food under the door. “Oh, I’m so scared. What’s a scrawny little kid like you gonna do to me? You wouldn’t be a threat even out of that cell.” He walked away, still laughing.

The guard felt suitably vindicated when he walked by at lunchtime and Fayt, who was still tightly clutching the cell bars, began pleading with him to take off Albel’s collar. “Not so brave now, eh?” the guard sneered.

“Please,” Fayt begged. “He won’t be a burden to you. I’ll take care of him. I’ll make sure he doesn’t’ try to escape. It’ll be a lot easier and cheaper than giving him so many drugs. If Albel and I are together, at least, we won’t be any trouble to you. We’ll wait patiently until we’re released.”

“And if we don’t release you?” the guard challenged

Fayt shrugged. “Lifetime imprisonment can be endured with the one I love.”

“He’s right there with you, stupid boy.”

“That’s not Albel,” Fayt snarled. “He’s just an empty shell.”

“Suit yourself,” the guard muttered. He walked back down the hallway.

Fayt sighed heavily and he slid down the wall into a heap on the floor. He glanced over his shoulder and shuddered at Albel’s vacant gaze. “Someone save us,” Fayt whispered.

Albel lurched across the room, stumbling several times. He sat down heavily and began to eat mechanically.

Fayt’s hands tightened into fists and he shook with anger. He jumped back to his feet and tightly gripped the bars. “I can’t take this anymore!” Fayt hollered into the hallway. “I want Albel back. Someone help me. Bring Albel back!”

Fayt’s anguished screams reached the guard station in the middle of the prison complex, where several guards were playing a card game. “That boy’s carrying on again,” one guard growled. “I need to shut his trap for good. I can’t play with all this noise.”

“Let him scream,” an older guard advised. “He’ll tire of it soon enough when no one comes.”

Fayt’s cries for help soon dissolved into hysterical, unintelligible shrieks. Just as the first guard made up his mind to go tell Fayt to keep it down, Fayt abruptly stopped screaming. Fayt’s mouth snapped shut and his whole body went rigid. His eyes rolled back into his head and blue light shot out from his body.

The last thing Fayt saw before passing out was Albel staggering to one side, a chunk of collar dangling from his lacerated neck.