Name: That Cat M122 Gender: Male, intact Breed: Wild Coat: Ash Red Bar Eyes: Orange Genetic Code: BA//bl (Ash Red, Carries Light Brown) C+//C+ (Homozygous Barred) +//cs (Carries Pointed) +//dex (Carries Extreme Dilute) +//tr (Carries Pearl Iris) Size: 46 Domestication: 62 Friendliness: 47 Noisiness: 36 Parents: Mother F118 Cinnamon Velvet Checker Point Mikasha Father M121 Blue Agouti Point, Onchan Siblings if known: (many) Mate: (Bacardi?) Offspring: Current Location: Barney's Barn Bar Art By/Born-Adopted From: Dray/Nidus Corona

That Cat. Barney knew that would be his name from the moment those yellow eyes blinked at him from an air duct vent. Something in his stomach churned, tightened, but. But here was the cat. He got the impression that while the dramatically rust-red looking head would remain that color, his incredibly dirty body and wings would be shiny white... If only they could get clean enough. Not an easy task out here in the desert, in the research facility, or down in Dry Cove itself, where the other winged cats were roosting. Maybe they'd groom each other like pigeons or like a proper colony.

Eventually Barney's suspicions were borne out: That Cat's coat was amazingly white, with the striking red only on his wings and head. A lot more attractive than the memory-of-him, half-starved and all crazy. This time, Barney promised, this time there were no experiments to run except maybe whether they could get tuna to thrive in an enclosed area, and that didn't involve any kind of teleporters...

*** From Nine Half-Lives *** (warning: sad)

Barney's work undercover had taken them across the countryside, when he was relocated to City 17. That had been the plan, after all, for whatever reason they knew they needed to be there . That was fine: City 14 had gone under some pretty heavy restructuring, after Breen had been through it. He'd seen to the changes himself, apparently.

Don't get Eli started, was their chant for at least a few months. Getting into a City was a bit easier these days. Getting out… That was a trick. But Barney knew some tricks. They'd been tromping around Europe and seeing the sights. He used his access to the Combine information network to get old maps, new maps, troop disbursements, all manner of helpful things.

After Eli had lost his foot getting into the City, he'd almost immediately left again and stayed out. He had to: he had a lab to build. They had several, scattered around this sprawling formerly-Serbian place. But his own was past the City, a difficult but workable trek past toxic waterways and dangerous outposts.

But Barney couldn't leave the City, he had his duties to perform. He had people to drag out of their apartments and beat senseless, he had folks to disturb with news of impending destruction of their block. He had to make sure that Izzy didn't get himself caught, too.

Though, Alyx was capable of helping out there. She was a godsend, that was for sure. She'd grown up racing between City and hideaway, beautiful and strong, and clever as hell. Smart like her father, who cherished her more than anything on Earth. She roamed where they could not, invisibly; or sometimes very visibly, too visibly for anyone's taste.

She always got away, though. Even when it looked like she wasn't going to. Sometimes, that was pure luck on her part. Sometimes, it was Barney adjusting patrol times or calling troops back to base. She'd been out at Black Mesa East when Izzy needed to test their teleporter.

So she hadn't seen him when he'd openly wept like a child at the sight of the only thing they had on hand to test it with. It was true that this cat was a hair past crazy, but Barney liked cats. This one was young, barely past its ‘teen' months. It already had half an ear missing, and its tail was pointed in two directions at any given time. Barney hadn't really intended to get attached to it.

But it just happened . Like it always did.

Izzy had assured him that things were ready, that all that science mumbo-jumbo was going to pay off today.

It hadn't.

Barney would have nightmares about that cat, for years… Probably for the rest of his life. That wasn't quite true: he would have nightmares about what happened to it. But the cat … Would always have a place in his heart.