TITLE: Untitled

AUTHOR: Stormwolf Dawn

FANDOM: The Sentinel

PAIRINGS: J/B other possibly

RATINGS: NC-17,

WARNINGS: Anything can show up...after all I am writing it. So be warned.

NOTES: I know I know. Another one. But really, when this idea hit me my first thought was, "Oh, cool!". which I guarantee I have never thought of any of my stories.

Think of this a sorta of Secret of Nimh, Land of the Giants kinda of story. Really weird.

For reference purposes of size think of humans of about rat sized compared to the Masters. Hope that helps.

Uh this might turn into a male pregnant fic. I still can't decide.

Untitled Sentinel Fic
by Stormwolf Dawn

Jim opened his eyes and cracked a yawn as he stretched his arms above his head. He rolled out of his nest of paper strips, and walked over to the water bottle hanging on the side of his cage. Kneeling down, Jim drank water by sucking it throught the tube that curved down from the bottle. When his thirst was slaked, Jim stood and went over to his food trough. The familiar pellets were waiting for him, and Jim ate his fill. When he was done, he did a few chin ups on
the swing in his cage, and ran a few miles on the wheel.

He stopped when he heard the Masters enter the room. Stepping off the wheel Jim walked over to the locked door of his cage and watched as the Masters entered. They wore their usual white coats, and went about their daily activities. Jim looked over at the cages of the other animals. There were twelve other humans, sixteen monkeys, two chimpanzees, and several rats. The Masters recorded on the daily charts the usual information. When they had done their initial
recordings, the Masters each removed an animal from its cage. They took blood samples to be analyzed, and some of the animals recieved their daily injection.

Jim tried to get away when his door was opened and a hand reached in to snag him, but was easily caught by the Master's large hand. Jim squirmed in the grasp usessly, but was unable to stop them taking blood with a small syringe injected into his leg. After the blood was taken, Jim recieved his daily injection into his stomach. The shot was painful, and Jim usually cried out in pain. The Master did not hear of course since human voices were too low for their hearing range. The only thing they ever heard was an occassional squeak when the human's voice got high enough to register. Usually due to a particular high scream.

When they were done, Jim was placed back in his cage and the Master took the test tube to analyze Jim's blood.

Inside his cage Jim rubbed his stomach to ease some of the soreness. He watched as some of the other humans also recieved injections. Jim didn't know what where in the syringes, and to him it didn't really matter.

Jim had been born in a cage, and had lived his entire life in one. His mother had been sold at a pet store while she had been pregnant with him. The Master who had bought her had been upset that she had given birth. So when Jim was old enough, around three, the Master took him back to the pet store.

He lived at the pet store for another year before he was sold to a Master. The Master kept him for fifteen more years before he was resold to his current Masters. Jim didn't like his current Masters, mostly because he didn't like the injections, but also the fact that the cages weren't cleaned regularly, nor was he bathed regularly.

Jim had also been tatooed, something which he had not liked one bit, and now wore a collar that he couldn't remove and that chafed his neck, and made it uncomfortable to sleep.

Jim, however, knew no other life but that one inside the cage, and didn't understand the concept of freedom or of escaping. He lived daily, eating, drinking, recieving injections, running in his wheel, and sleeping. He did not look forward for the next day, nor did he try and remember days past since all were pretty much the same.

However, Jim was about to learn a new way of life.

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Blair tied his pack to the back of the saddle, then turned to look at his friend.

"Blair this dangerous, and foolish." Simon said as he finished buckling the saddle around his rat's belly.

Blair patted his rat on the neck. The animal, raised by humans from birth, practically purred at Blair's touch....if rats could purr.

"I'm not leaving without Maya, Simon. I will get her back." Blair stated firmly.

Simon just rolled his eyes, and mounted up into the saddle. Blair followed suit.

"Those stupid Giants will never see us coming." Blair said then spurred his rat down the long tunnel. Simon followed.

They eventually reached the only way into the lab of the building that Blair and Simon's tribe inhabited. The building was a Pharmaceutical company, and had several labs. But Blair knew which one Maya had been taken too. The lab whose only entrance for humans was behind one of the electrical outlets in the wall.

They halted their rats far enough away from the wires, and dimounted. Blair removed his pack from the saddle and placed it over his shoulders. Together, Simon and Blair manuevered their way through the wires to the outlet. Simon was able to move the outlet enough for them both to climb through into the lab.

It was late at night, and the lab was unoccupied by any of the giants. Blair immediately took out his spy glass and used it to find the shelf with the caged humans. He found them, but couldn't spot Maya among them. But he knew he wasn't seeing all the humans, so decided that it was worth the climb to see if Maya was among them.

Quickly, Blair and Simon crossed the floor. What was only a few feet for giants, was several meters for humans.

When they reached the base of the shelf that held the human cages, Blair removed a grappling hook and rope from his pack. He handed it to Simon, who swung around and up. The grappling hook caught the first time, and the two of them scrambled up the rope easily. After all, they had done it before.

Simon and Blair's tribe had lived beneath the lab and in its wall for years. Adventurers like Blair and Simon ventured out and stole items from the giants for human scientists to use to create things that helped their tribe. They also stole food for the tribe to survive, and protected the tribe from wild rats, spiders, and sometimes even snakes. Blair and Simon where hailed by the tribe as heroes since they had taken care of the rattlesnake that had invaded their tribe's home. Four adventurers had died to rid the tribe of the rattler.

Eventually, they reached the shelf that the grappling hook had caught, and hauled themselves up. Several wire cages lined the shelf, and Blair could see the sleeping humans inside. Blair shivered, glad that he himself had not been cage born. *What an awful fate* Blair thought as they went down the shelf looking for Maya.

Jim had heard the clink of the grappling hook snagging the wood of the shelf, and curiousity forced him out of his nest to investigate. He was surprised when the two strange looking humans had climbed up onto the shelf.

Jack, his old cage mate from his previous owner had told him about free humans. Jack had been one before he had been caught. It was Jack who had taught him to speak. Most cage born humans could not speak. Jim was an exception thanks to Jack's teachings.

Jim watched the two humans walk down the shelf toward Jim's cage which was the last one on the shelf. They noticed immediately that Jim was watching them.

The shorter one with long chestnut curls shook his head, and made a shooing motion with his hand. "Go back to sleep." The man said.

"No." Jim answered.

The two humans looked at him in shock. They obviously hadn't expected Jim to understand.

"When did you get captured?" Blair asked the human.

The man looked at him with confusion. "Captured?"

"You're cage born?" Blair used the more delicate word. Normally freeborns call ed cageborns, 'pets'. It was considered a grave insult.

The man nodded.

"What are you doing?" Jim asked curious.

"We are looking for our friend. Her name is Maya."

"I know where she is. They took her apart. See." Jim pointed toward one of the opposite shelves. Blair turned to look, but could not see anything at that distance.

Simon got out the spyglass, and looked.

"What do you mean, apart?" Blair asked.

"Apart." Jim shrugged not understanding.

"Oh my...oh no. He means....dissected." Simon said sadly horror filling his voice.

"You're not saying she's...she's...oh no!" Blair began to cry and Simon wrapped his friend in a comforting embrace.

Jim watched them in confusion.

"Bastards. Those stinking bastards." Blair whispered angrily into Simon's chest. "Why, oh man, why?"

"They always take apart the females." Jim said.

"Shut up!" Blair said angrily, "Just shut up, stupid pet!"

Jim stepped back at the heat in the man's voice, but said nothing.

"Blair, its not his fault. He's as much a victim as Maya."

"Fuck that. Maya wasn't cageborn, she wasn't a pet!! Those bastards have enough pets to torture, why did they have to take her."

Simon held Blair while Blair cried, still grieving for his lover.

While Simon held Blair, he looked over at the cageborn. "Where did you learn to speak?" He asked.

"Jack. He taught me." Jim said.

"Who is Jack."

"My Master before I came here brought Jack. He said he was not cageborn. He taught me how to speak. Then Master took him away."

"Why did your Master take him away."

Jim shrugged, "Jack said he didn't like our cage. He climbed up." Jim pointed to the roof of the wire cage. "He stuck his head through the top, then let go. Master came and took Jack away."

Simon stared at the human in horror. The man had no idea that his cage-mate had killed himself. He was too ignorant to understand such things. No one had ever taught him the concept of death, and birth. All the human knew was the four walls of his cage, and the will of his Masters.

Suddenly, Jim bent over in pain, hissing and crying as painful spasms surged through him.

"What wrong?" Blair asked. He had stopped crying, but had not stopped grieving. He had heard the conversation between Simon and the human and had been just as shocked as Simon at the human's ignorance.

Jim, on his knees, looked up. Tears streaked down his face, "It hurts. Hurts after. Always hurts."

"After what?"

"Shots." Jim answered and cried as another spasm rocked him.

"Injections. Whatever they give him must cause these side effects. Poor thing." Simon said.

Eventually, the spasms stopped and Jim lay on the cage floor curled up in a fetal position.

"Let's go, Blair. There's nothing more we can do. I'm so sorry about Maya." Simon said.

Blair looked at the cageborn for a few more seconds, then nodded at Simon.

"You leave?" Jim asked. "Like Jack?"

"No, not like Jack." Simon said.

"Then you come back?"

"No." Simon answered.

Jim only nodded, and crawled back to his nest to sleep. He felt sad that he would not see them again, but did not udnerstand why he felt sad.

Together, Simon and Blair descended down the rope. Simon released the grappling hook, and replaced it in Blair's pack.

On the ride back to their respective homes, Blair could not get the cageborn out of his mind. He felt as if he had missed something, but couldn't figure out what it was. Strangely enough, Blair felt as if he should go back, and thought to himself that it was foolish, and very dangerous. But he couldn't shake the feeling, and that night, blue eyes haunted his dreams.

END PART 2