MERRY EARLY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

I want to say sorry to anyone who speaks Hindi if I mess up on some of the transitions. My only resources is a Hindi dictionary I brought for this story and Google translate so I may have mess up on some parts.

Disclaimer: I don't own Littlest Pet Shop, Hasbro does. I only owned this story-line and my OC characters.

Chapter 6: The Oppression

"Why didn't you tell me?"

She knew.

She knew she's been sick for awhile. How else would she acted so calm about this? How else would she just simply smile like that after coughing out a lot of blood? Aashi didn't answer him. She didn't even look at him. She held her head down. A frown decorated her face as she laid in her cage. Her long braids falling off her shoulders.

Sunil shook with emotion as he yelled. He didn't know what he was feeling. Anger. Mortify. Betrayal. He didn't know. He just kept yelling. The gravity of the situation hitting him with each word that left his mouth. His anxiety rising in volumes like his voice. "You should have told me this, Aashi. You should have-"

Aashi suddenly turns to him, interrupting him from his panicking. "What would you have done about it, Sunil?!"

Sunil shut his mouth, letting her continued. "We are prisoners here, Sunil. Prisoners! Do you think I can just leave and get better?"

She bit her lower lip, trying to not cry in front of him. "It's quite obvious what... what I got."

She squeezed her fore paws, looking away from him again.

She was right.

It was quite obvious what she got. Sunil has seen the signs before when he was just a small kit. When they still lived in their burrow in India, their older sister, Erica have shown the same signs when she visited their home one day. Their mother had recognized the symptoms right away and immediately sent their sister to a doctor. Erica got treated and she was well again. Thankfully, it was caught in time before it became serious. However, in Aashi's case...

"It's the Noyade Disease(1), Sunil. Without any treatment, the chances of me living is-"

"NAHÎN!" [NO!]

Aashi turn back to her brother in shock. "Suni!"

"I will not let you die, Aashi. You hear me? You will not die here! I will not let that happen-"

"That's the thing, Sunil!" Tears now flowing from her green orbs. She moves toward him, grabbing the bars of her cage. "How are you going to stop this? How are you going to save me? We're trapped here, Sunil and unless our captors start to feel empathetic towards us, I don't see any chance of me surviving this."

She sigh, her head hung low. "This is the reason why I didn't say anything. I knew you would act like this. I knew you would freak out."

"Freak out?!" He felt something snap inside of him when he heard her say that. "Freak out?! Aashi, how am I suppose to act, hmm? Should I act happy that you are coughing out blood? Should I be excited that you'll be getting worse day by day?!" His front paws were balled into fists. His anger reflecting in his golden orbs. "Tell me, Aashi. How am I suppose to act since you don't think I shouldn't care about your health?!"

It was her turn to glare. "I didn't-" She cough loud and rough. Sunil flinch at the sound. "I... I didn't say that! I said you would freak out! Which you are doing right now!"

She pressed her head on the bars. "I know you care, Sunil. But... I'm trying to be realistic here." She shivers as she stare at the ground. "I'm sick with something that needs medical attention yet we're in a place that can be rivaled to the abyss."

The abyss. A place where all condemned souls goes to after their life has ended. A place where those souls are tortured and ridiculed for all eternity. A place where hope is dead the moment you entered its dark depths. To say this place rival the abyss was very fitting. Especially, the situation now occurring in front of him.

"I'm going to die, Sunil. You... You can't save me. Even your powers can't help me."

"Aashi..." She needed to know this. He always tell her this and yet, she didn't believe him. "I told you this before that I don't have powers. What... What I do... They are just tricks. A quick change of the hand that makes it seems like I'm doing magic. I... I can't do actual magic."

Aashi frown, snapping her head back at her older brother. "That's not true! You do have powers! Why do you keep denying it?!"

"Because I don't have powers!" His anger spiking up again. "If I did have powers, I would use those powers to get us outta here! If I have powers, I would have-"

Suddenly, a memory spilled out in his mind. A memory he tried to bury deep since-

"S-Sunil?"

"I... I just need a moment alone, Aashi." He turned his back away from her, going to the end of his cell.

"S-Sunil-"

"Leave him." He heard Elijah said. He didn't know he was up. Did he heard them arguing? Most likely yes.

"But-"

"Just leave him, Aashi. He's just needs some alone time."

Sunil was thankful Elijah was telling Aashi to leave him alone. He didn't want to break apart in front of her. Though, it was hard to hide his devastation when her jail cell was next to his.

"KyoN..." [Why...]

He quietly whimper that word over and over in his native tongue.

"KyoN..." [Why...]

Why? Why him? Why his siblings? What had they done to deserve this? What had their family done to deserved this fate?

Why?

WHY?

"Don't lose yourself."

Soon, emotional exhaustion finally catches up to him. One second later, the blue mongoose was fast asleep.

He giggle in sweet happiness as he ran his tiny front paw on his newest creation.

It was hard but he finally finished it.

Suddenly, he heard a hustle in the large bushes. Right away, the little blue mongoose hid his creation under a pile of leaves. No one really never goes into Mother's garden except for Mother herself but he was still on edge. Mother's garden was his safe haven. His little world. A place where he can let go. Be himself. A place where he can be away from-

"Ira?"

Ira's ears twitched when he heard his name. He turn to see a older blue mongoose coming through the bushes. Ira's eyes widened with glee. His anxiety vanishing when he realized who it was.

"Bara bhâî!" [Older brother!] Ira ran to hug his brother. His older brother hugged back. "I knew I would find you here. You're always in your little playground."

They let go of each other. The older blue mongoose patted the little one on the head. "Have you been doing alright?"

"Yes. I have been doing alright. Dakshi is still a bully, though." He pouted when he said that. "He's always think about himself and always uses the big brother card on me."

Ira's eyes gaze down in sadness. "I really hate it when he does that."

The older brother chuckled. "Don't worry. Older siblings are often like that sometimes. Why, just last week, I had to deal with Grandini being a bit...ah...um..."

"Self-centered. Ignorant." He heard those words from Erica when she was complaining about Grandini to Mother. She also said other words but Mother covered his ears before he could hear them. He wonder why though?

"Too devoted." That was the word the older sibling came up with to describe their eldest sister. "Grandini can be a bit too devoted in her ways but that's aside the point. The point is that siblings can be a bit overbearing at times but they do care about you."

Ira shook his head. "But Anil-"

"What's this?"

Ira froze in shock. He turn around to see his creation was sticking out of the pile of leaves. Anil walk towards the pile. He pick up the object from the leaves, examining it. Ira's nerves calm down when he told himself this was Anil. He could trust Anil. "You made this?"

The little mongoose quickly nod his head. His cheeks turning a darker blue than normal. "Yeah. I was experimenting again. Do you like it?"

"It's really nice. Did you made it for Vedvalli?"

The object turn out to be a small mongoose doll with yawn hair and green button eyes. A red flower hairpin clipped in its hair. "Yes. Her doll broke a few days ago. I figure I can make her another one since Mother has been very busy lately."

The older mongoose's face suddenly turn into concern. "Did... Did anyone see you make it?"

Ira shook his head. "No, I always make sure no one sees me when I'm creating." Ever since he seen his mother's panicking expression that day, he always made sure no one is looking when he's making stuff. He didn't know why his mother panic when she saw him creating stuff but he figure to do it secretly. Also, Anil seem to be worry about that too...

Anil sigh in relief when he gave Ira the doll. They sat on the soft soil for awhile, listening to the gentle sounds of nature. The atmosphere around them being soothing and calm.

Ira kept staring at the doll for awhile. His fore paws gently rubbing the doll's features. His eyes gazing in deep thought.

"A-Anil..." The older mongoose turned to stare at his younger sibling. "How... How can I do this? I... I see things. Sometimes... I see things that don't really happen until later. Sometimes... I … I see things standing there and no one really sees it but me and... and then, I... I can do this."

"Ira..."

"Even if I don't read Mother's books, I can still make things. I... I can make them shape what I want them to be. What's wrong with me?"

"Ira, there nothing wrong with you. You-"

"You're wrong!" Tears starting to form around his large orbs. The doll dropping back to the ground. Its smile mocking him. "There is something wrong with me! I..." His anger slimmer down as he shook in despair. "I am not stupid. I seen the looks everyone gives me. I... I seen the way they always avoid me... always..." He twisted the soil in his tiny fore paws, hoping to keep those bad feelings in his heart. He shouldn't feel this way towards his family and yet... "It's like... It's like..."

He didn't want to say that word. That horrible word he hears from his uncles and older cousins.

"Ira..." Anil pulled his younger brother close. Ira digging into his brother's chest as tears streaming down his eyes."Don't let them get to you. Remember what I said to you before. If you let their words and actions get to you-"

"I know! I know but I hear them! C-Câcâ... [U-Uncle...] H-He's call me-" He stops, he just couldn't say that word. "Why... am I like this? Why can't I be like everyone else? Why?"

"Oh, Ira. You know why."

He pulls his younger sibling closer and whisper in his ear. "You don't deserve it."

Ira could literally feel his blood freeze solid when he heard that. Ira immediately push Anil away. His eyes widened in horror when he saw his kind gentle older brother turning into a rotten corpse. The sclera of his brown orbs were black as the same dark ooze leak out of them and his wounds. His fangs and claws becoming longer and sharper. His remaining fur turning midnight black. Ira look around to see his mother's garden was melting away. Dark liquid entwined with the dissolving background.

"You cause all this."

"N-No..." Ira begin to back away from the undead creature but stops when he feels something tugging his neck and wrists.

Chains.

He was chained. He was chained to-

"Why?!" Arms shot out of the ground, grabbing the tiny mongoose with their filthy claws. Ira screamed in fright when they began to tug him into the ground. "Stop! Please! Stop! I don't-"

He stops his attempts to escape when he realized whom was pulling him to his doom.

"Mâtâ-jî..." [Mother...]

It was his mother. It was his father. It was his whole family.

They were all in the same condition like Anil. All dead. All covered in dark ooze. "Why?! Why?!" They repeated over and over as they pull him into the ground. Realizing he was still in moral peril, Ira started to struggled again. His movements becoming more desperate as he tries to escape this horrible nightmare.

"Why do you keep struggling?" It wasn't Anil or his family who said that, it was-

"I promise you'll be happy here."

Only his head remained in the surface now but it was quickly sinking...

"So, can you please stop fighting and join us?"

His mouth was covered by dirt, clogging his screams of terror. "I promise you'll be happy here."

Only his sight remains, his innocent orbs lock onto the demon as the monster-

"After all, you won't feel anything ever again."

He screams.

He screams so loud, he swears he was waking the dead.

He suddenly feels himself literally yank out of his terror and push to the ground. The pain... the pain is what cause him to stop screaming. He never been so relief to feel pain.

"Sunil?! Sunil?!"

Why was Vedvalli calling him...

The moment he turn his head to see large human feet, reality starts to surrounds him. Vedvalli... no, Aashi's shouts of concern fills his ears with the one-way threats from the inmates. That's right. He wasn't Ira anymore. He was Sunil now(2). He was... Sunil...

"Get up!" He forcibly obeyed, merely out of habit than fear. He hears the handler attached the leash to his collar and quickly, pulls him to the arena.

He was numb and yet he was responsive.

He's feels alive and yet he's feels dead.

He might as well be dead.

Almost everything he ever loved and cherished is gone. His home. His family. His innocence. The only thing he has left is Aashi and Elijah. The only thing he truly cares about now that he was here.

"I'm going to die, Sunil."

However, he's now realized he has let his ignorance... no, his stupidity get to him.

He should have realized something like this would happen. He knew he couldn't be there in every fight, in every second of their lives. Especially, in this place but he should have realize eventfully something was going to happen to one of his siblings. Something he couldn't fix. He accepted his demise, his fate but not theirs. He could not accepted his siblings' deaths at all.

And now... Now, Aashi was dying.

Unless she gets treatment, she was going to die.

Music and cheers filled his ears. The blue mongoose open his eyes. He found himself in the arena already. How queer, considering how the handlers always treat him like a ragdoll on the way here.

His golden orbs scans around the death ring. Jovial humans shouted in excitement. All here to see him fight. All here to see him kill.

All here to see him perform.

'I am the performer...'

His opponents were snakes as usual. However, they were not cobras. Rattlesnakes. Four big diamondback rattlesnakes. Their rattles shook in synced with the Charmer's flute. Their blank orbs fixated on their master.

'I am the performer.'

The Charmer stopped playing and stared at his audience. It was the same speech he always gives whenever he has to fight snakes. It was so boring, so dull. Sunil just wanted to get it over with. He just wanted-

"Release him."

The handler did what he was told and ran back into the hallway.

Sunil didn't move. Even hearing the sound of the handler slamming and locking the door didn't make him flinch.

His eyes remained on his prey.

The serpents turn to stare at their opponent. Some giving the blue mongoose twisted grins. Others just focus on him. "Hmmmm... It seems our lord has given us a new meal" one of them said. It was a male orange rattlesnake. It was the biggest one in the pack. Most likely, this was the leader. "Tell me my friends, which parts do you want to bite?"

"I want the legs."

"Arms are mine. I call them."

"What? I want the arms!"

He bit his tongue from growling. They were the same. They were all the same! It didn't matter if they were cobras or rattlesnakes, all snakes were the same.

They were all cold-hearted creatures. Monsters!

"What's wrong, Mongoose?" He lock his gaze to a male red rattlesnake. "Already accepted your death? You properly want to die."

To die? Did he even want to die?

Perhaps...

"You caused this."

He balled his fore paw in a fist. He close his eyes. He... He...

"There something wrong with him." "He's possessed, Father. Possessed!" "It's been getting worse. I think... I think we need to send him somewhere. Somewhere Ira can get help." "No! Nonononono! I'm not crazy! I'm NOT crazy! Please, stop! Please!"

All those words he has heard them say... All those words he has screamed and yet, never been heard... He... He... "Don't worry." He opened his eyes to see the red rattlesnake slithers towards him, clearly not afraid of the mongoose. Slowly, everything around him started to shifted, to molded... His opponents' scaly features changing into- "It would end quickly."

He just wanted... He just wanted...

The red rattlesnake lunged-

"I'm going to die, Sunil."

He just wanted to let it go.

It was quick. After all, the red rattlesnake came close to him too easily. Too slubbering!

It was just too easy to go to the red serpent's side and bit him in the neck. The red snake die in a matter of seconds the moment his fangs pierced his skin. He spits the limbless body to the floor. Slowly, he turns to the other rattlesnakes. All of them glaring at him. Sunil simply chuckled. His golden orbs gleaming in glee as he lick the blood off his muzzle with his tongue.

"What's wrong?" He said, tilting his head to the side. A smirk evident on his face. "Don't like what I did."

Two of the remaining rattlesnakes lunge at him but it didn't matter. All he care about was keeping that adrenaline pumping in his veins as he let all his frustrations, all his anger, all his pain out. As much as he hated these fights, this was his only outlet. The only way to vent it all out. The only way to be free from everything. To escape reality.

Performing these acts of death was his only way to forget.

Crimson and black shatter around the arena. There was no screams, no sounds of gasping for air. There was only cheers of enjoyment he heard as he beat down each snake with his bottle-up fury.

TBC...

(1)- Noyade's disease is a made-up name but the disease Aashi has isn't. What Aashi has is actually chronic bronchitis: A lung disease that make those who have this illness trouble breathing. Some of the symptoms are coughing, coughing out mucus(or in rare cases, some blood), shortness of breath and wheezing, and your chest hurting. There is no real cure for chronic bronchitis and it doesn't really go away, however it can be treated by doctors. The reason I didn't just have Aashi say she has bronchitis is because her and Sunil (well, past! Sunil) are from different type of world. At the beginning of their lives, they were raised away from humans. So, they have little to no knowledge of human ways. They are going to called certain things with different names.

(2)- Let me explain this because this is actually a bit of a theory of mine since the LPS episode "What Did You Say?". It would properly sound ridiculous and it may not happen due to it diving WAY too deep into the cartoon but hey, it's interesting. Ok, so my theory is this, I believe that the names of some of the pets are not their real names. What I mean is that when a pet is born, their parents would have to called her or him something. They would give their son or daughter a name. I would like to called this, the birth name. It is a name that a pet gets when they are born. They would keep this name until a human adopts them. The human would then change their name to something else and they would be called that for now on. In Sunil's case in this series, when his parents had him, they named him Ira. Ira is Sunil's birth name in this series. He kept that name until the humans changed it to Sunil. I would properly explain more as the story continues. So far, I hope you're happy with this quick summary. Like I said, this theory does way too deep into the show.

Author's Note: Merry Early Christmas everyone! So, after writing sixteen pages in my notebook, rewriting it on my computer, and re-reading/editing it, chapter 6 is finally done and I finally made it to the part that I wanted to get in this story. Yes, I planned for Aashi to get sick. This story is now going to start shifting in the next chapter. After all, Sunil has to escape from that place somehow. To tell you the truth, I been waiting to write this next chapter for awhile. However, I also didn't want to rush the story. I wanted this story to have a good pace as well have the scenes be very descriptive. Though, I still have a few more chapters to go. I originally was going to do five to ten chapters but it seem that's not going to happen. Now, I believe it's going to be maybe ten to twenty chapters and one more interlude. So, sorry, if it's been kinda boring and slow up until this point. I'm a slow updater. I'm perfectionist when it comes to my writing and it's hard to put the scenes you want on paper. Also, real life always comes first in my book.

Also Sunil speaking Hindi... Personally, I just pick out this language out of random. After watching "Tongue-Tied", I thought it would be cool if Sunil can speak a language from India like Youngmee can speak Korean. However, there are a lot of languages in India. I believe around seven hundred languages to be exact. So, I choose what first came into my mind, Hindi. Finding a Hindi dictionary was actually hard since I know Google translate wouldn't be very good. I went to two bookstores until I finally decide order it online. It's very interesting exactly.

Anywhoo... Here's one of the working titles for Chapter 7 in case you're interested: The Wonderland.

Until then...