The Reborn - Finishing What Was Started IC [M]

[G]

There they are. Gina thought, as beside her Bestie let out a gasp of awe. But what are they going to say?

The music had ended, and people were clapping at the royal pair's entrance. The powerful emperor raised his hand.

Gina felt a sudden, horrible lurch in her stomach - half as if the floor had just dropped out from under her, and half as if someone had just kicked her in the gut. She staggered sideways, half into Bestie, and almost crushed the other girl's hand as she automatically grabbed her tighter in an attempt to keep her balance.

"Gigi!" Bestie yelped. "What'th...?"

On the balcony, prince Panos staggered too. He had his hands on Lycas's shoulders, and a spatter of red droplets had appeared on the emperor's face. Panos tottered backwards as another line of red trickled down his back, diamonds raining from the severed netting of his dress. The backs of his legs hit the balcony railing, went out from under him, and he fell.

"Oh my godth!" Bestie screamed in panic as the prince toppled into the crowd below. Next to the girls, two guards fumbled for their sidearms. Bestie tried to pull Gina and Cal away while she still had a hold on their hands. The former princess gave no resistance, staring wide-eyed at the horrific scene unfolding before them. Her arm throbbed with the arrival of the new mark, and there was an ache in her belly.. or was it her heart?

"Get down, get down!" Gina urged Bestie, unfreezing as the guards barged forward with guns held low. Gina half pressed Gigi's friend to her knees herself as she tore her hand out of the other young woman's grip. "Stay here." she advised. "Cal, come on!"

Cal disentangled herself, leaving the whimpering Bestie behind. Gina began to run towards the balcony, her heels less of an obstacle than the constricting red dress as she tried to push her way through the panicking, surging crowd. She stumbled into a sudden clearing, and saw why when she registered Baka lying prone on the ballroom floor. The abdomen of his humble clothes was soaked through with red.

"No!" Gina said aloud as she reeled to the boy's side. "No no no no no, fuck!"

I shouldn't have left him alone! I shouldn't have left him alone!

She dropped to her knees beside him and jabbed her thumbs into his collarbone to try and get a reaction. "Baka! Baka can you hear me?"

Cal dodged between the fleeing revellers to where Gina stood, her eyes fixed on Baka's corpse. She felt numb - death and chaos where not new experiences for her, and her defence mechanism was to freeze herself against it, but a solitary tear still escaped her right eye. It rolled down her face to leave a small, damp spot on the floor.

Baka lay there still and glassy eyed. Pushing her hand against the bullet hole in his stomach to try and staunch the bleeding, Gina went through her worse than useless first-aider's checks. Baka's airway was clear, but she couldn't feel him breathing - and the blood oozing from his stomach had no pressure behind it. She would have started doing compressions anyway, had a strong hand not seized her upper arm and pulled her away from the body.

"Hey-!" she began, and twisted round to see one of the cloaked guards trying to pull her close so that he could shield her with his body. Jostled by the guard as he moved to grab Gina, Cal fell, her knees striking the cold floor painfully next to where Baka lay.The guard however didn't seem to notice - he was bald, stony-faced, and if he thought it strange that Lady Gigi and her attendant were running to the aid of a dead slave, he did not show it. His eyes were on the emperor, who still stood in immobilised shock up on the balcony, Panos' blood spattered across his face.

The crowd surged again as people screamed and ran for the doors. The press in front of them briefly parted, and Gina saw another guard standing in the middle of the ballroom, this one tall and handsome in his ceremonial garb. He too was looking up at the emperor, with tears in his dark eyes. But this man's arm was outstretched and he was pointing a gun - sleek and black and lethal.

***

"I'm not pulling back," Vahşi told the man, almost snapping. It was his stubbornness and pride getting him into trouble again, as it had so many times over the years. His mark tingled for a moment and he couldn't help clenching his fist. A muffled protest in a familiar voice came to Vahşi's ears and he turned toward the crowd, searching for the source. The sudden sense of loss hit him hard, at the same time as the burning of the new mark, and Vahşi growled to himself in a brief moment of pain. His momentary discomfort was completely driven from his mind when Panos' body fell from the balcony.

Vahşi's expression suddenly closely matched that of the man beside him. Their location gave them a good view of the panic spreading below them. For a moment Vahşi was reminded of one of the gladiatorial contests he'd often seen in his youth, when an injured wolf had escaped the arena and sprung into the rows full of spectators. They'd run then the same way the royals in this world fled now. His absentminded reflections brought a half-smile to his otherwise deadpan expression, as if the chaos was somehow amusing him now, as it had on that long-ago day.

Gina's voice slipped into his conscience, returning him to the present. What had happened to Baka? He stepped forward to the railing of the balcony he stood on, and leaned out so he could see the crowd better. It was easy for him to find Gina, flailing around in a brightly-coloured dress as she was, but it took him a moment longer to find the still form sprawled across the floor. He wasn't sure what he said, but he cried out in protest. The gunman was still standing where he'd fired the first shots, with tears in his eyes but also the unmistakable look of a man about to kill. Vahşi pulled his pistol from its hiding place and cupped it in both hands for a moment before firing twice.

He didn't stop to see if his shots had hit their mark, or even hit anything at all. Putting a hand on the railing, Vahşi slid his hip across it and fell toward the floor. A sharp pain twisted up his ankle when he landed, but he rolled to the side and then to his feet without stopping to assess his own damage. Getting through the crowd of people was easy; they saw his weapon and made a path for him as he approached Gina.

"You let her go," Vahşi snarled, looking more like the shadow of a wolf than a human. Flipping the pistol in his grasp, wincing at the feel of the hot barrel against the flesh of his palm, he clubbed the guard holding Gina across the head. the guard collapsed from the blunt truma. More guards were pulling out their rifles amongst the screaming mass. The Emporer was running down the stairs, guards flocking Panos was falling, two men catching his bleeding form. But there was crossfire that was hitting the fleeing crowed.

The guards were turning on themselves, the man that had been speaking with Vashi came over to him and the two young women.

"Now's your chance!" He hissed as he pointed to the flushed faced, terror stricken Lycus who was with the three guards surrounding Now laid out Panos. The growing sense of Pano's importance grew in the three traveler's hearts.

"We thshould run!!" Bestie cried to Gina, trying to yank her away.

Cal, still kneeling and unnoticed, found her eyes glued to the prone body of the Prigkipassa, the sorrow she felt at Panos' fall overwhelming; greater, even, than for her fallen friend. While Vahsi freed Gina from the guard, only for her to be snagged by the hysterical 'Bestie,' the youngest of the trio rose, slipping between the chaotic crowd to the Prince's side. The distraught Emperor paid her no more attention than the guards did; their eyes outward, scanning the screaming masses for any further danger to the Royals.

Silent tears streamed down the teens' bruised face as she reached them, most of Panos' form concealed behind his mourning love. An arm dangled around the Emperors' side, a mockery of a last embrace, and on the smooth skin his mark shimmered, even as Cal's own still tingled. She reached out, her delicate fingers circling his forearm, and swept her thumb in a gentle caress over the sign...

[Minkasha]

Their vision was marked and spotted with white as Calamity’s sweeping touch of her thumb landed upon the Venusian symbol. The spots grew into sheets that blanketed all sight, then all the senses. Fading away the screams, the bullets, the wild footsteps, the sensation of ground and gravity; whiteness had taken them wholly. In this land their consciousness ended, drifting away through the nothing.

The light took them elsewhere now…

Universe II: Advent Dawn*

Kysmæt

Calamity Isis Mae Sensibility, Georgina Wright, & Manisha Leos

When the sheet began to pull away, their sense slowly returned. First came the soulful understanding that two of those who they were connected to were vastly far away. Second was the deep inhale of clean air, tickled with the scents of cooking meat. Sounds came next, of talking voices and running, laughing children. Weight came next, feeling their bodies standing firmly on uneven ground. The weather was humid and warm onto their skin. Sight was last. What they came to see was a market composed of several wooden stands down each side of a dirt road, grass growing healthy and wild. Each of these stands were filled with rows of meats and herbs with one having unusual looking guns of a bulky, black, light covered designs.

None of the people walking or running about up and down in light layers of handmade robes and tunics were human. They were of a feline appearance, their bodies covered in various colors of fur, faces bearing the cat nose and eyes with human lips.

Behind the stands, on each side of the dirt road, were steel metallic dome homes that were being covered by free growing vines. Cat people stepped in and out of them through their automatic doors. Each of them were dressed in dark gray robes that were airy and of soft cloth. Gina’s neck wound was free to breathe again. Bestie opened her brown eyes wider in panic as she looked around. She appeared ready to scream. The three women stood in a triangle, facing each other in the middle of the road. For now none of the cat people were giving them much attention other than walking or running around them.

Inside the inner part of Gina’s elbow was a woven basket filled with an alien flower of wide orange and teal petals and smelled of a mixture between vanilla and pine cone.

Akinasha

Panos Lambros & Vahşi

When the light lifted for the two adventurers, nothing was the same. They were in a green field of grass beside a tall apple tree on a gentle hill. The wind swept and softly touched their skin. Vahşi was leaned against the tree, red apple in his hand wearing basic leather armor that left his sides exposed as the torso piece was bound by leather straps. Panos was dressed in lightly mud covered dress shoes with deep green khakis, tucked in deep brown button up and closed lab coat.

Vahşi felt the distance of three companions in the far off sky, beyond the sky elsewhere. But he also felt the bond with Panos. The silverette felt shooting pain through his right shoulder and he convulsed in pain, dropping to his hands and knee. Blood was starting to seep through the right shoulder blade of his lap coat, Panos not able to focus on anything other than the pain taking him. He collapsed into a ball on the grass, feeling warmth cover his upper back but a chill fill his body. To the Lupine, the more Panos bled, the greater the young person’s exciting, springy, grapevine flowery scent was also iron filled.

A mile to the right looked to be a village of small hill-hidden homes with round doors and round windows. Beyond that, what Vahşi guessed to be three to four miles was a white winged vehicle the size of a three story home with two large tilted down wings, and a rigid rectangular body that end at the front with a glass that reflected the light and prevented his viewing. **

---

Notes:

*All races and their concepts were created by their original writers. I have taken liberties to fill in the blanks and hope I can do them some justice.

**It's a spaceship, but as Vahşi is not aware of what that is, I had to describe it otherwise.

@Az & G, the planet is a large rain forest jungle from that Cal and Gina can see in the greater distance, the thick tropical trees blocking any view inside.

@The Cockietal, the world you're on so far nothing more than gently rolling hills, fruit bearing trees sparsely about and lush plains grass.

[Azazeal849]

"You let her go," Vahşi snarled, looking more like the shadow of a wolf than a human. Flipping the pistol in his grasp, wincing at the feel of the hot barrel against the flesh of his palm, he clubbed the guard holding Gina across the head. The guard collapsed from the blunt truma. More guards were pulling out their rifles amongst the screaming mass.

"Vahşi." Gina gasped, before hunching down in instinctive reflex against the deafening gunfire. She looked around for the man who had been aiming his pistol at Lycas, but he had either fled into the crowd or vanished beneath it after being knocked down by Vahsi's wild shot. Rifles banged from seemingly every direction at once; bullets zipped over their heads, and up on one of the balconies a guard raked a line of bullet holes across the carved ceiling as he tumbled backwards.

The emperor was running down the stairs, following the guards who were flocking to where Panos had fallen. Two men had caught his bleeding form, but there was still danger from the crossfire that was hitting the fleeing crowd. As the guards turned on themselves, the man that had been speaking with Vahşi came over to him and the two young women.

"Now's your chance!" he hissed as he pointed to the flush-faced, terror stricken Lycus; who was now with the three guards surrounding the laid-out Panos.

Gina snapped round to look at him. "You...?" She broke off as she looked down at her arm, noticing the new tattoo blazing there for the first time. It was a circle and arrow, set below the horned Mercury symbol and the sideways figure-8. Gina knew it as a generic male symbol, but from looking up the zodiac a few hours earlier she also knew it as the sign of Mars, and Mars was the god of...

"Oh shit!" she swore. Whoever planned this was either an idiot or a psycho.

"We thould run!!" Bestie cried to Gina as she came stumbling through the crowd. She grabbed Gina by the hand and tried to yank her away. At the same time Cal rose, slipping between the chaotic crowd to prince Panos' side. The distraught emperor paid her no more attention than the guards did; their eyes were outward, scanning the screaming masses for any further danger to the royals. Gina realised that she was right - they had to help Panos. That was the whole reason they had been sent here.

"Vahşi," she pleaded, realising that she was shouting after being half-deafened by the gunfire. "No more shooting. We've got to help Panos first."

She hesitated, sparing Baka's cold body a final glance, before tightening her grip on Bestie's hand and instead pulling them face to face.

"Bestie." she said. Her eyes were beginning to swim, but she was surprised by how calm her voice sounded as she seized the other girl's hands and looked into her eyes. "Get my phone. It's in my bag. Call an ambulance. And a tonne of..."

The blurring got worse, until it became a total white-out. Gina felt for a split second as if she were falling, but then she was assailed by heat, the sound of laughter, and her vision cleared to show a bustling marketplace.

"...tonne of police?" she finished dumbly. Her ears were still ringing from the gunfire.

Bestie tore her hands away from Gina's and jumped back in shock, while beside her Cal was scrambling to her feet. The zodiac marks on Gina's arm remained, but Baka's blood was gone from her hands as if it had never been there. She cuffed at her eyes and looked around.

What the...? The market was lined with wooden food stands and dome-shaped buildings covered in climbing creepers, and the humid air was fragrant with the smell of cooking meat and the vaguely vanilla scent from the basket hanging from her elbow. The people going to and fro, and the children dodging around them were...not human.

Oh, not again. What is this, Quantum Leap?

"Where's Vahsi?" she asked Cal, looking round. She could only see Cal and Bestie, dressed in the same simple grey robes as herself.

If Gina was shaken and confused, Bestie - who hadn't suffered this kind of displacement once before - was worse. Her pointed jaw was clenched tight and her brown eyes were widened in panic. She looked ready to scream.

"It's alright, it's okay." Gina told their impromptu travelling companion quickly, laying her hands on the panicking girl's arms. "Don't panic. Let's just figure out where we are, okay? Cal, do you have anything in your pockets?"

They had to find out where Vahsi was, and Baka's...

As she patted herself down with her free hand and looked about for any sort of clue, she realised that her hands were shaking.

[G]

Calamity's cheeks were still damp with tears as the world refocused around her, bringing with it a new and unfamiliar landscape. The sense of loss remained - though different now, and she knew, innately, that Panos and Lycus were out of reach, at least for now; they had been separated when everything shifted. The encapsulation in a world of white had been no less jarring than the first time, though perhaps her breath had hitched a little less - some part of her knew what was happening, this time around.

The same was not true for Bestie, who Cal realised, with a start, was still with them. Remembering the violent reaction she had received in the unfamiliar world they had just left, when she had made it apparent that she did not belong there, the young girl stiffened.

"Don't scream. Stay calm!*" she instructed the new member of their party, the commanding tone she had used so often as a Princess strong in her voice. She couldn't see herself, didn't know if her bruises had faded along with the clothing from that other place, but in either case she had no wish to attract more attention - or violence - to herself.

"Pockets..." she registered Gina's question, and her small hands moved over the robes she wore, but if there were pockets concealed in their folds, she did not find them. "No, nothing."

Though her eyes had registered the feline nature of the passers-by, they showed no sign of shock. Outlandish features were not uncommon in the outer districts of home, and these... people? were certainly far less strange to look at then the fish man, Ockilsetter had been.

"Who are we now? This is a market, maybe you're supposed to be selling those," she gestured to the basket Gina held. "Let's just hope I'm not a fucking servant here, as well."

The profanity was a mark of the subservient, fearful side that had been brought out in her in the last place dissipating; the teens' potty-mouth returning with her old confidence. "Maybe..." she hesitated; caution had not yet left her entirely, and the suggestion had a questioning tone, seeking Gina's opinion, "maybe we should just ask someone?"

[The Cockatiel]

Vahşi initially thought he'd been taken home. The reminder of his fellow travellers remained with him, so he knew he couldn't be a native of this place, but the scenery was familiar in a primal way that hinted he might belong to somewhere like this. A gentle breeze twirled his hair around his chin and slipped lightly across his exposed skin. The weight of the leather armour was familiar, and the leather pressed familiarly against his shoulders and stomach. He rubbed his thumb against the apple in his left hand as his gaze cut a matching arc across the landscape. It took him only moments to notice Panos' body; at first Vahşi thought it was Baka but the scent was distinctively different.

Panos' clothes puzzled him for a moment, but years of battle experience prompted him to ignore the clothing for the wound. The slender man fell to his hands and knees and Vahşi instantly took a half-step back, familiar with the violent thrashing that often proceeded death. When Panos didn't seem about to die, and instead curled into a ball, Vahşi moved closer again. The flowery scent that had clung to Panos since their meeting was now tinted with the metallic scent of blood.

Vahşi looked for any sign of habitation. The first thing to catch his eye was not the homes but the huge vehicle sitting beyond them. Once he asserted that the massive thing wasn't about to come after the two of them, his attention focused on the cluster of houses. It was the only obvious sign of habitation in the area, which meant it was probably Panos' only chance at survival, but Panos didn't seem to be in the mood to do anything but lay on the ground.

"You have to get up," Vahşi told him sternly, setting the apple up on one of the branches of the tree. "If you keep laying here, you're going to bleed out and die. Then you'll never make it back home to the person you love." He knew instinctively that Panos loved Lycus, just from the way he'd protected the emperor. "Get up. Let's go." If Panos didn't get on his feet by himself, Vahşi was going to pull him up and carry him if he had to. Baka, it seemed, was lost; Vahşi didn't want to handle another death on his conscience that wasn't supposed to be there. This place looked too much like home, the home he only half-remembered in a primal part of his brain, to become bloodstained so soon after their arrival.



[OOC - Mink, could you let me know what kind of gear and weapons Vahşi has on him, if any?]

[Minkasha]

Kysmæt

Calamity Isis Mae Sensibility, Georgina Wright, & Manisha Leos

Bestie had opened her mouth to scream, ignoring Gina’s reassurances but when Cal spoke, she was suddenly compliant. Her mouth had held open for a second before she shut it, relaxed her features and stood evenly.*

“Okay” The brown haired woman told Cal, she stared around at the Cat-people and the dirt that made the thoroughfare of the market. “It’th dirty” She noticed she was wearing sandals that had wood flats and a leather strap at the toe. “Where are we and what’ths going on?” She asked calmly the other two girls. For a second Bestie narrowed her eyes at Gina.

Cal was hissed at by two Cat-children who were to her waist and covered in robes with wrapped fabric over their heads. One had black fur and green feline eyes, the other a gray coat with white streaks and blue eyes. Gender was hard to determine from their young bodies. They hissed up at her, fangs barred before laughing at each other.

Akinasha

Panos Lambros & Vahşi

Vahşi couldn’t get much reply out of Panos, picking him up. He was a light load, groaning when his body was moved. Walking down the hill the nature here gave itself away as a simple beauty, the grass under his feet and the wind still giving a soft breeze. The closer he drew to the hill homes the more he could start smelling the scents of a basic society: the cooked foods, stored ingredients, the faint smell of feces. But more came to his nose, fighting past the Panos’ bloody scent, the scents of people like his own. Their olfactory markers a mix of man and animal, he smelled variations, but with the blood and flowers at the end of his nose he couldn’t gather any more scent information.

Panos’ sapphire eyes were narrowed in pain but when he looked up to see Vahşi, his first reflect was to push him off. He put a weak hand to the armor, but Panos continued to stare. Wait. His mind processed a simple but fearful thought: Vahşi was never Lycus’ brother. This man was a stranger. Worse than a reclusive pervert. He couldn’t scream for help as his mouth was too busy gritting teeth to endure the pain, eyes weepy. Every step the man took made his shoulder jostle, shooting fire through his nervous system.

“You strange man!” Panos hissed at the black haired man.

Vahşi had carried Panos into the villiage to be greeted by the people he could smell. All of them, the forty or so he could see doing various mundane tasks**looked no older than Panos. The silverett in his arms arguably appeared older than the youths consisting of the hill homes. Little dirt paths led to each home, some with basic wooden fences and little fruit bearing bushes.

These little young peoplehad animalistic qualities: cat ears and tails, or small wings of various feather colors, or fox ears with orange fluffy tails. He scanned seeing even those with wolf ears and tails, smelling them out as most like him. Not a single one looked over the age of fifteen in appearance. Two females, a blue bird girl and a fox girl were walking past Vahşi and looked up at him. In their round, youthful eyes was a look of disappointment, frowning at him before they continued on with their woven fruit baskets.

Vahşi’s sight quickly noticed a human bolting straight to him. This human looked to be young as well, in his late teen years but his body was tall as he was almost six foot. He had teal eyes, a thick volume of brown hair cut into a crew cut, even brows, a fuller lower lip and a narrow but defined jaw. His dress shoes stampeded over the dirt, moving through the little people who stared up at him with tilts of their head or moving out of the way with confusion. This young man wore similar clothes of the bleeding Panos.

“Akishan, hand him to me this instant” the young man looked and spoke firmly, but his annunciation was so sharp that his consonants gave him an accent that had him huffing out air in irregular beats of his dialogue. He slowly displayed his arms out, ready to hold Panos.

---

Notes:

*Calamity's cohesion magic was successful.

**If you require more description, Cockatiel, PM me or OOC message

[The Cockatiel]

Panos didn't seem to feel like answering, so Vahşi just picked him up. His weight was much lighter than Vahşi had been expecting, and he set out for the cluster of homes he'd spotted. The multistory vehicle still drew his attention but he focused his senses on the village as they got within shouting distance. No guards or soldiers seemed to be around, or if they were they didn't think Vahşi and Panos to be a threat. That was a good thing, since Vahşi seemed to have some bone-deep look to him that put every honest officer on the alert as soon as they saw him. He usually swore he wasn't responsible for whatever had gone wrong, but he was usually lying when he did so.

As Vahşi got closer to the village he realized that these people weren't fully human. Panos' scents were blocking him from getting any specific information, but these people definitely seemed to be similar to his own. His nostrils twitched but he knew he had to focus on his current task of getting Panos some help. Later, though, he would defintiely come back here. When Panos reached up to try to push him off, Vahşi looked down but made no effort to stop him. In his current shape, Panos wouldn't be able to do much to him.

"You strange man!" Panos hissed at him, obviously in pain and angry.

"I'll dump you on the goddamn dirt if you don't shut up," Vahşi replied calmly. "You can bleed to death out here instead of dealing with someone who actually wants to keep you alive. Do you want to get back to your emperor or not?" Vahşi had apparently been planning to murder aforementioned emperor, but he decided to keep that news to himself.

Vahşi's attention was caught by a few teens with canine features similar to the ones he sometimes had himself, and he nearly veered off to speak with them until he remembered Panos' weight in his arms. He noticed them frowning at him in disappointment and a quizzical look formed on his face. However, he had little time to think on this, as a human dressed similar to Panos was charging toward them through the crowd.

"Hand him to you?" Vahşi repeated, raising an eyebrow. Akishan, apparently, was his name, or maybe a title. He would have guessed that his name would have been the same in this world, but he wasn't about to question it and bring unnecessary attention to himself. "I bet you'd love that. You lead the way and I'll carry him. He's bleeding out even now, and any movement he makes will risk making him bleed to death. So, unless you want to be responsible for him dying, lead the way. You're in charge."

[Minkasha]

Akinasha

Panos Lambros & Vahşi

Following the young man, he was being led through the hill homes that were loosely clustered together, along the way continuing to draw attention. They did not exchange words for the six or so minutes they had walked, the village small. The man’s teal eyes fell back on Vahşi, then down to Panos. An expression on concern crossed his face.

“Faster” He urged Vahşi as he took his first steps off the dirt road to the large white metal, winged construct. Panos’ shoulder had seeped through his clothes, the Lupine’s arm and hand getting stained in flowery blood. He hadn’t made a sound or moved, limp. The brown haired man ran up to the back of the construct where Vahşi could see gray topless dome shaped protrusions. Between the back wall sudden showed a door, the outline first being made suddenly and the door disappearing in the wall as it slid in. A silver ramp came down from the opening, stretching down to the mud and grass. Vahşi eyed the movement of the ramp like he thought it was about to bite him but moved forward, following the teal-eyed man. He didn't hesitate but his muscles tensed as he stepped up onto the ramp.

Vahşi winched slightly as his steps instantly turned into heavy thuds as he went from the gentle grasses to the metal of the ramp. Following up into the construct he was greeted with a small white hallway, it was without decoration, nor was it painted, some sort of material of white each and every direction. Light was emitted evenly under the white walls and floor, making it impossible for shadows to exist. The scent of the construct was nonexistent, there was nothing natural here. Panos scent was flooding his nose now, it was pleasant but the sharp smell of metal was bolder than before. More blood. Vahşi was about to mention to his guide that they should hurry when the man seemed to realize the increase in bloodflow himself.

“This way” The young man seemed even more panicked, running to the first door on the left, four in total in this little white hallway. Entering, Vahşi saw a man completely made of a smooth silver metal that reflected warped shapes. It too carried no scent, the room stinking of artificial sanitation.

“Bolton sir, how may I assist?” The metallic man’s voice wasn’t real, it was warped in a way Vahşi couldn’t explain. The lupian eyed it suspiciously, put on guard by the lack of scent and emotion. This thing didn't seem like a real human, but at least he now knew his escort's name. The young man fixed his collar again.

“Please tend Panos’ wounds” Bolton requested.

“As you wish” The metal man said, turning its head, black knobs of eyes focused straight on Vahşi and walking straight to him. “Please hand me the researcher assistant.”

Vahşi carefully transferred Panos to the metal man. He instinctively disliked the inhumanness of the metal surface, but Bolton seemed to be perfectly knowledgeable about what he was doing. The mention of 'researcher assistant' didn't pass him, and he wondered just what Panos was supposedly researching. A quiet thought proposed that Panos' previous actions had had to do with the village nearby, but Vahşi focused on the strange actions of the metal man rather than on his own thoughts.

Panos was placed on the medical table, the robotic individual starting to flip him over. A small incisor came out from its finger tip and it began to cut away at Panos' blood stained lapcoat, revealing that it had also cut through the shirt at the shoulder. Pulling away the layers, the open wound, potent with flowery iron scent, was exposed.

"What's going on here? Report" The male voice was equally as unnaturally crisp as Bolton's. An older man of five foot eight came in, balding up top with gray sides and mean murky green eyes. He looked to be in his late fifties, dressed similarly to the other males. He shuffled his lab coat and openly stared at Vahşi "Why are one of the subjects on board?" Vahşi noticed the term applied to him but didn't reply to it. He was getting a bad feeling about this place, despite the help it had afforded Panos. The reference to him being 'on board' something made him wonder if this building was somehow meant for transportation. Although he was far from being a sailor, he knew enough about seamanship to recognize the meaning of 'on board'.

"Sir" Bolton said, straightening his posture and raising a hand to salute the older man. "The Maki Akishan subject's wounded Panos Evanson in the upper right section of his torso." Lie, Vahşi thought, dropping his gaze to the floor so the emotion in his eyes wouldn't betray his thoughts. It was the assassin at the palace. The one who killed Baka. "He is displaying an unusual amount of sentience and intellience for the race."

"An unusual amount of intelligence?" Vahşi repeated. "You must be popular at parties." The fingers of his right hand twitched subtly as if grasping for a weapon, but he forced his hand to be still.

The older man unholstered a black gun, though it was complicated to look at as it was chunky and had a very long black barrel which was pointed his way now. "You have been bad, Akishan" The older man was speaking down to Vahşi, as if he were a child, and Vahşi instinctively hated him. "You must go to a bad place for a little while."

"Do you know something?" Vahşi asked softly. "That's almost exactly what they said to me the first time they tried to lock me away." The older man glanced past Vahşi to Bolton, a confused look on his face, and the lupian charged him. In the few seconds it took him to close the gap between them, the older man raised the weapon in his grasp, but he never had the chance to fire. Bolton shrieked somewhere behind them. Vahşi knocked the man's weapon hand aside, twisting his fingers around the weapon as he slammed the side of his body into the older man's chest. The man grunted and let go of the weapon as he stumbled back. Vahşi kicked him further away, raising the weapon himself as the man's body tumbled to the floor. His opponent gave a scream of anger and rushed toward him; Vahşi parried his blow and sent him headlong into the wall. Once he crashed into the unyielding surface, the man lay still and didn't seem to breathe. Vahşi turned to focus his weapon on Bolton. "What did he mean by 'subjects'?" he asked, voice harsh and demanding. There was little room to doubt that he wouldn't hesitate to injure Bolton to facilitate getting some answers. "What are you doing to that village?"

The brown haired researcher looked over his shoulder to the medical table, seeing Panos' wound being sprayed with something out of the metal man's hand and the wound being sewn shut with the other.

Bolton swallowed hard when he looked back to Vahşi. But the young man held his ground, as if he was protecting Panos behind him. Vahşi guessed that he wouldn't be facing any trouble from him as far as hurting Panos was concerned, and he lowered the weapon. His fingers still curled tightly around the stock, ready to fire at any moment if attacked, but he at least presented a slightly less threatening picture. "I won't hurt him," he said, indicating Panos with a nod of his head. "Tell me why you're here."

"We were studying what your people are." Bolten said, almost spitting a crispy tone at the man with the gun. "We collected data" His teal eyes stared, fear and bravery swirling in his young male expression. He was standing up for something, or someone. "My people are people," Vahşi said curtly. "Not your lab toys. You didn't have the right." He tilted his head as he studied him, wondering what would prompt him to be helpful. A woman? Nobody would be this loyal to a job. A mundane scented blood crept into Vahşi's nose. The man he had slammed into the white wall was now bleeding from his skull unto the white illuminated floor of the strange winged white building. Vahşi tilted the gun toward the body to indicate it. "I don't want you to end up like him. You haven't done anything to me, and you've helped Panos. If you cooperate with me, I'll give you my word that I will keep you safe." It was the last thing he wanted to say, but he delivered the words smoothly and meant them. Whatever promises he made, he kept; and while this Bolton certainly didn't know that, Vahşi didn't particularly care. He needed to find the others and navigate this ridiculous adventure until he got back home.

[Minkasha]

Akinasha

Panos Lambros & Vahşi

Spoiler: Panos & Vahşi Part 1  

Bolton hadn't been very responsive to Vahşi, not even asking for his name while the time passed. It had been six or seven hours that Vahşi had remained in the white winged building. His wait had begun to take effect, slowly making him hungry and the nap he had taken on the couch of an entirely different place and era was fading from him. If it hadn't been for the fact that Vahşi was on his own (he didn't count Panos as any kind of ally, at least not at the moment) he would have been more than happy to find somewhere to lay down. Sooner or later he'd need food as well, but he didn't trust Bolton enough to send him off to find something and he knew better than to leave Panos on his own.

Bolton had the metal man clean up the older man's body, since Vahşi didn't see the logic in leaving him laying on the floor rather than helping him. Once he woke up, though, Vahşi wouldn't let him lay around in the same room. Bolton had spent the time holding onto Panos' delicate hand and staring down at the unconscious and now half naked young person intimately. At a time Bolton had looked at Panos' forearm to rub his fingers confusingly over the strange tattoo markings that were there. He had the metal man scrape a small flat tool across the surface to put into a small plastic round container and close it with another plastic disk. The metal man's movement had caught Vahşi's attention but once he'd realized that Panos wasn't being hurt, he ignored what was happening.

The blood had been cleaned off of the Silverette, the subtle purple hues of his hair shining brighter in the all around light of the winged building. Vahşi had been denied any comforts, simply because Bolton had not extended conversation to offer them. He only had a white squared off chair to sit in within the lab or wander the hall, the other three doors locked and did not open for him. The confinement irritated Vahşi, but he said nothing about it. At least he would have warning if anyone entered the room.Through the time spent around Panos it had become conclusive that the flowery scent he carried was his natural fragrance, pleasing his nose with every whiff and keeping him wide wake with its natural springy zest that was laced in it. Without it, Vahşi doubted he would have stayed awake.

Panos slowly stirred, feeling a subtle sting in his right shoulder. The movement warned Vahşi that Panos was starting to wake, but he simply sat back and waited to see what was going to happen.Panos slowly parted his lips, eyes closed and still seeing the darkness behind his eyelids. Lips touched his, the reminded him of Lycus, full yet the kiss was firm and full of emotion. His memory was a blur, he accepted the affection with a soft moan, slowly sitting up as he did. Words were coming to him, they were chunky and ungraceful nonsense until suddenly his ears could comprehend them.

"...I'm so glad you have been able to heal" a strange, voice said to him. It was far younger that Lycus, and Panos shot open his crystalline sapphires eyes to see a teal eyed man smiling back at him. Panos looked down to see a sheet was covering his body, his torso bare. He slipped his fingers out of this man's touch while he rubbed his own lips, remembering. There had been Straton, the gun...light...and an impostor. Panos fluttered his eyes for a moment before the Lambros narrowed them in anger.

A high pitched twhap came and went through the medical room as Panos slapped the strange person across his face. He hated strange men touching him, period. Where was Lycus?

"Do not touch me, you do not have that right" Panos hissed, holding the white sheet up to cover himself. The man had no right to see his body either.

"I'm sorry I was not aware of the subject's wild behavior" The brown haired young man said rubbing his cheek and looking very upset. Vahşi glared at him but made no verbal comment. Getting in a yelling match wouldn't help anything. Panos scoffed, what nonsense was he talking about.

"You are a strange pervert" Panos lashed at him again, he should know, having a history with one. A name Panos wouldn't allow crossing his mind or his heart. Vahşi couldn't help laughing at the repetition of the phrase, but he checked his mirth in favour of curiosity about Panos' current state. He flipped back his silver hair and stood up, to see the other in this alien-esk white room. The impostor, a man who was never Lycus' brother. Though how did the Emperor, so cunning and intelligent fall for this idiot's deception? He looked as subtle as the dumbest fishermen of Crete. And, secondly, why did he have this strange feeling when looking upon the man? A feeling within the stomach that said he was standing right in front of him, and that three other individuals were off somewhere else far way. The teen divine-blooded shook it off and Panos raised his soft nose, not intimidated by both men who were taller than him, carrying himself with graceful, yet imposing airs of command. "I want clothes, immediately and I wish to see Lycus"

Bolton swallowed hard, looking at Vahşi inquisitively. The lupian shrugged in reply, having nothing to add to the conversation. He didn't really understand it himself, after all.Then Bolton looked back at Panos, still rubbing his slapped cheek.

"Who? My partner, this isn't funny anymore."

"Oh," Vahşi said, the dots connecting in his head. His culture had no taboos on sexual orientation, and he didn't care about Bolton's evident interest in Panos or Panos' relationship with Lycus. Now that he'd apparently gotten a front-row seat on a love triangle featuring mistaken identity, however, he was realizing just how quickly the situation was likely to deteriorate. "Bolton, don't antagonize him. Panos, keep yourself under control. Neither of you know what's going on here." Needless to say, he didn't have all the answers himself, but he know a lot more than either of the others.

Panos raised a purplish silver brow at Vahşi. The lupian glared back challengingly; whether he meant it or whether it was his default expression wasn't clear. Panos' slender pale shoulders shook with snide laughter. The teenage, feminine figure put the side of his hand by his opposing side of his mouth to continue chuckling.

“The hypocrisy” Panos’ eyes twinkled with intelligence and arrogance. “The impostor to tell me to control myself:. Vahşi chose to ignore these words, due largely to the fact that at the moment they were both impostors in this world.

“Maybe you should lie down to recover” Bolton, the other young person said, putting a hand on the small of Panos’ bare back. His affections were spurred as Panos slapped the hand off his flesh.

“Clothes. Now.” The Silverette focused his inhuman colored gaze into the touchy feely man’s eyes and watched him leave the room. Vahşi was amused by the display but it didn't show. The door made an odd swoosh noise as it opened and closed. It left him alone with the stranger whose name he knew. “Vahşi, by all the gods you will tell me who you really are. Because it is not my Emperor’s brother”

The feminine boy only had his looks and scents as his advantage in this situation. Vahşi was certainly able to calculate numerous ways of pinning or killing him without much hassle. Panos was pressing himself firmly into the reins of social power between the two of them. Or, at least, he believed he was.

"It's about time you figured out my name," Vahşi said. "After all, it seems like we're stuck in this world together until we find passage off the planet. Seems like these humans don't take to my people very well, so us going anywhere is going to be determined by one of two things - your powers of persuasion or my shooting skills. Which one is up to you. I don't know anything about 'your' Emperor's brother, but he's not me. I don't know who it is and I don't care. What matters is what's happening right now. If you don't help me I will have no problem with abandoning you here or locking you up." Panos stared with absolute hatred. He had never had anyone talk to him like this, spare his father, and these strange riddles. He pursed his pouting lips as he stared up at Vahşi. The lupian stared back, without the hatred in Panos' gaze but his expression equally harsh.

"You wouldn't do that..." Panos said with more vulnerability, his expression softening into sadness and confusion. Who was this black haired man?

"You think I wouldn't? Just try me," Vahşi dared him. "We both know I have the upper hand physically, even without the gun. It would be easy for me to hurt you without meaning to, and I don't want to do that. So, the only way this situation works out for both of us is if we work together. Help me. Then we can both get back home to the person we love. What do you say?" Vahşi usually would have abandoned diplomacy for brute force in these situations, but he felt sorry for Panos. He was as alone and scared as Vahşi was right now - maybe they weren't so totally different as Panos thought. The Silverette stared longer, looking ever more insecure about the situation.

"Ah!" Panos screamed when the doors opened to reveal a robot straight out of the sci-fi movies. Vahşi had the gun up before bothering to assess what had made Panos scream. When he saw it was the robot he lowered the weapon and watched it come closer.Panos side stepped away from the door, nervously getting closer to Vahşi. "This is only for mutual sake of surviving." Vahşi didn't answer. Panos' eyes scanned the robot, its silver frame and its flat head turning to look straight at him. It made his heart rush with fear, which Vahşi could hear with his sharp lupine ears.

"How is your status?" It's metallic voice asked him.

"F-fine. Goodbye" Panos waved a hand at it.

"Goodbye." It walked out the swooshing doors and Panos sighed, putting a hand over his heart through the sheet that he still held to cover himself. The stranger next to him seemed like someone who wasn't capable of any emotional spectrum. He turned his skeptical eyes on Vahşi. The lupian glanced back for only a moment before looking away again, glancing around the room as if to make sure no enemies would spring out of the walls.Was this some trial of the gods? Panos sent a silent prayer to Dionysus, or was this Hera's punishment for failing his marriage so terribly with...him?

The other man walked in with a folded piece of clothing that turned to be a black shirt that was small enough to fit him. Timidly Bolton handed it to him, Panos snatched it and turned his back to both men when he put it on. From the back, Vahşi's perception of Panos' gender became even harder to tell, his features soft and refined like female flesh, and the lithe curved hips suggested the female gender, it was a trick of the eye, a turn of Panos' body and suddenly it looked female.

Bolton stood around uncomfortably. He shot a look at Vahşi.

"Why are you still here? We will be leaving your planet. I received your message" He glared harder now. "Mr. Arkwright was a prominent scientist. And you killed him."

Vahşi raised a hand to stop him from continuing. "Just because these are my people doesn't mean that this is my planet. I belong somewhere else, and so does Panos. Somewhere that you're going to take us. And I didn't kill your Arkwright. He attacked me with a weapon and I defended myself. His death was his own fault." Vahşi glanced at Panos, realizing he had a lot to explain. "We need to leave immediately. When will you be ready to go?" Bolton's lower lip quivered with anger, his brows as furrowed as possible. Panos stared at the situation. The disconnect from this situation had his mind spinning to put it all together. He was questioning reality itself at the moment. Only now did he realize the symbols of the Gods on his right wrist below the infinite symbol. Aphrodite, Ares, Hermes...a test of the gods? Then it was true, was he to feel fearful or confident in knowing the gods had put him in this situation? Had the bullet killed him and this was the trial of his soul? He didn't like asking these questions, his sapphire eyes glistened in the thought of dying before ever getting to bond with Lycus. He was just sixteen.

"How do you know we weren't sent here for a purpose?" Panos asked the muscular killer, Vahşi. There were people far away from them, but perhaps they had their own quest.

Vahşi hesitated, turning this new idea over in his mind. Until this point he'd been focused on reuniting with the others, but Panos had brought up a valid point. Although he hadn't seen the point in his or his companions' presence in the last world, it had probably been because of their collective presence that Panos was currently alive.

Bolton looked ready to cry tears of frustration as his eyes went back and forth to Vahşi and Panos. He grabbed Panos' wrist. Vahşi's grip shifted on the gun, but he'd known from Bolton's body language that he wasn't trying to hurt Panos, so he didn't bring his weapon up to a defensive position yet.

"You've become mentally unstable. Emergency protocol dictates I can man the ship and return us to Quita."

"Panos is not mentally unstable," Vahşi interjected. "Now that his body is healed, his condition is as good as mine." This, perhaps, was not an entirely convincing argument to Bolton, who seemed to think Vahşi had wantonly murdered Arkwright.

Panos shot a look at the man and then at Vahşi. He put his hand's the man with a frown.

"Please, I'm sorry for the trouble we've caused you." Panos began to weep quietly, half true half not. An outlet for his frustrations. He gently slid his hand down the man's palm, brushing down the man's fingers. Bolton's face switched with confusion, changing between anger and sadness.

Vahşi watched them warily. He still didn't trust Bolton, although he was half-convinced that he was no threat to Panos. The trouble, as far as he was concerned, had mostly come from Arkwright, but he wasn't about to bring that up again. "Panos, do you want to stay here?" he asked. He kept his voice quiet so as not to scare either of them, but he obviously wanted an answer.

"What else are we suppose to do?" Panos shifted his eyes over to Vahşi, stroking Bolton's hand to keep him quiet, though he didn't want to. Vahşi could see the other, taller teenager standing around not knowing what to do, all his confidence gone. "We were sent here for a reason, we shouldn't leave yet"

"If you figure out what that purpose is, let me know," Vahşi said dryly. "For now, you're in charge of dealing with Bolton. He likes you a lot more than me." In fact, if Vahşi and Bolton were left alone together, someone was likely to end up injured. "Do you want to go back to the village? I'd like to take a look around but I'm pretty sure that if I leave you two alone he'll find a way to kidnap you and take you off-planet."

"I'm right here" Bolton said in his own defense. "I'm going to figure out what happened to you Panos" He stared down at his partner with worry and he too started to cry, though less pretty about it than Panos was. Panos let go of Bolton's hand and held himself at the chest. He wiped his eyes. Wasn't Bolton a sad, sad thing caught in whatever this was?

"I am not sure you'll find much" If it was the gods' will, then it was simply done without the ability of man to understand. Vahşi only shrugged, confident that he would find out something. After all, the people on this planet were the same as him. Something would develop, of that he was certain. Panos looked up to Vahşi, "We should get out of here, there must be some clues somewhere." Sliding himself between the two taller men, Panos got into the main hallway, seeing this kind of design right out of the fiction he had seen in media. He guessed the taller door at the end of the hall to the right to be the way out and he began to towards it.

Vahşi waited until after Panos had passed him to give Bolton a warning glare. Panos was safe from him, he was sure of that now, but the lupian still didn't trust him. He followed Panos into the main hallway, catching up before they got to the outer door, and put a hand on his shoulder. "Take this," he instructed, holding out the gun. "But don't shoot anything. Especially me. I'm not really a pervert, despite the fact you were yelling that I was."

Spoiler: Panos & Vahşi Part 2 

Together Panos and Vahşi had left the winged building, Panos making a passing comment to himself as he looked back at it about the reality of ‘spaceships’. Panos’ emotion of confusion wasn’t hard for Vahşi to be receptive to, all over his divine-blooded face. But while they walked over the grass back onto the mud path onto the village his nose was once again brought back into the simple culture scents. Without Panos profusely bleeding, he could smell past the flowery grapevine to get a better understanding of the small animal people that continued to do minuscule tasks. The scent was animalistic like his, but weaker. Surely he could fight a slew of these young individuals and overcome them easily, if truly their scent was indicative to their level of natural strength.

Panos looked at the people they were drawing closer to with open disgust: seeing creepy children looking people dragging around carts, mashing herbs, and running around with hideous smiles of crooked or yellowed teeth. The young prince gagged when his sapphires landed on a robed bird girl who looked no older than twelve covered in muted colored robes and heavily pregnant. Even Vahşi looked troubled bu her young age, though he'd seemed almost pleased with the rest of the village. In fact, to Panos’ ever growing disgust of the hill-home people, they all looked between the ages of a youthful fifteen to no lesser than twelve, seeing the minority exceptions of smaller children and starkly elderly.

“This is too much for me to bear,” Panos scoffed and frowned at all of them, walking into the edge of the village. Vahşi rolled his eyes but ignored him. He'd already realized that he'd have to deal with things he usually wouldn't tolerate. Panos had been royalty in their last adventure, and it would hardly be normal for him to calmly adjust to this new place.

“Hi!” A female one with long brown hair, orange ears and a fox’s tail said, waving to both of them. Vahşi waved back, a slight smile on his face.

“Eww, it talked to me.” Panos put a hand over his pout lips.

"No need to be rude," Vahşi said, glaring down at Panos with a look that clearly stated he didn't want Panos speaking about the natives like that. "They're no less human than I am."

In the mud path thoroughfare a gathering of these little people was forming, they had small pikes, a bunch of male ones with leather armor very similar to what Vahşi wore, looked seriously as they could with their rosy cheeks and baby fat cheeks. The twenty of so clapped once in unison. The noise and weapons caught Vahşi's attention, and he stopped walking to watch.

“Hunt time!” said a male in front with choppy black hair and the tallest spear. He too was a fox little person. But when he raised his spear Vahşi’s sight caught a tattooed symbol on his forearm that pulled him to look with a sense of urgency. It was of a cross and a hooking tail. Vahşi tilted his head an shifted his weight, staring curiously at the mark. Perhaps Panos had been right in saying they had a purpose here.This marked fox little person smiled his crooked teeth to the group, turned tail and began to run down the mud path in the direction away from Vahşi and Panos. The group of males rushed after. The more the marked little person fled, the sense of importance followed, much like when Panos bore the symbol of Venus upon his hand.

“Maki…” Another little person said in concern as she was making a paste in her stone bowl. Panos stared around at all of this with an overwhelming repulsion, clearly missing what Vahşi's stronger senses caught. The smells Panos could pick up were below him. Panos was certain this had to be a trial by the gods.

"We're following them," Vahşi decided, pointing after the group that was running, led by the marked vulpian. "There's something about that kid." He motioned for Panos to follow him and started after the group, his interested growing with each step. Panos stared down at his dress shoes, it was strange for him to actually be in male attire after all the dramas previously, and oddly enough for it to fit him. But these starting to be specked with dirt shoes weren't going to be any great support for this unbecoming terrain of mud and grass.

The Lambros prince sighed heavily and tried to keep up behind Vahşi. Following, the two of them had various troubles keeping up - Vahşi clearly having less difficulty. Despite their weakness they were lightweight and speedy people. Any rectangular formation the males had while standing together had broken apart while running through the grass fields - the ones with the vulpian features noticeably ahead of the rest. In the run Vahşi was able to enjoy a calm breeze going through his hair, the tranquil sun on his face, back in a natural world. He appreciated the way this world was different from the last one - especially the fact that he had normal clothes this time. The red robe he had been subjected to in the last world has been absolutely ridiculous from his point of view.

The run had lasted two miles, entering into the scattered forests, the trees mostly evergreens. With the blowing wind cut in half within the trees it stilled the scents giving Vahşi a glimpse back to the wild life. None of the smells here were refined, but none of them were foul; all organic, the permeating bark and foliage, the animal life and its variances. It was all for Vahşi to take in, his feet crushing cones, fallen leaves and more grass.

Although Vahşi was having no trouble, and was in fact enjoying himself, his sharp hearing could also hear Panos in the distance behind him struggling and coughing, not as physically inclined as any of the other males here. The village males walked forward, lowering their spears into a pointed attack position.

"Hunt big meat and food!" The marked vulpian told the others and they all shouted with their young voices, running and scattering about the forest. He stood alone near the edge of the forest, his fox ears twitching and raising his nose, sniffing for something. Vahşi approached him cautiously, stepping lightly as if unsure of the ground he stepped on. "That mark on your arm," he said, dropping his gaze to it as he spoke, then looking back at the vulpian's face. "What does it mean? What's your name?" He wanted to ask if the boy felt the same connection he did but decided to take it slow.

"Oh gods," Panos panted when he crashed into a tree at the very rim of the forest to lean against. His right shoulder ached deeply and he let that arm drop to dangle. Vahşi's ears picked up the noise of the collision but he was focused on the young vulpian.

The marked vulpian shot his ears straight up, and glared at Vahşi with a growl, his orange tail standing straight up. Vahşi shifted his weight away from him in case the growl prefaced action but stayed where he was. Annoying children seemed to be an intergalactical occurrence.

"You maki, no one likes maki." The vulpian pointed at Vahşi, up to him since none of the little people were taller than three and a half, maybe four, feet. "Go hunt, hunter then being maki okay again." In the distance of the woods the lupine heard the little people marching around, spears clanking and thudding, some striking living animals and their death cries. Though one cry seemed sharper than the others. Vahşi glanced in the direction of the hunt. The invitation was certainly far from unwelcome. "All right," he agreed, a smirk curving across his lips. The young vulpian and his fellows were probably unaware of how much stronger he was compared to them. He started toward the sounds of the hunt, using all his senses to determine what was going on.

As he sped through the high branch forest, Vahşi's ears picked up the sounds of branches breaking near by, and he smelled a leaf grazing animal. Canine instinct told Vahşi that it was his prey, and he changed course to chase after it. Once his senses told him he was close, the lupian hid behind bushes filled with red berries. Looking over he saw what looked like a boar with a brown coat. Unlike any other boar Vahşi knew of, however, it had three sharp tusks each side of its mouth. It seemed to be walking cautiously, its nose and ears twitching. It was searching for something, its gaze slowly turning towards Vahşi's direction. The lupian's ears picked up more screaming in the distance, but he was sure this time it was some of the little people, their young voices curdling. The boar was staring suspiciously at the bush Vahşi was hiding behind, and the lupian held still. He knew wild boars were unpredictable, violent creatures, and he had no wish to engage this one in hand-to-hand combat. The boar seemed to lose interest in him when it saw no definite threat and looked away, grunting as it searched the forest floor for food. Vahşi burst from his hiding place, running at top speed, and the boar squealed in anger and fear. Instead of attacking it, however, Vahşi was running past it, pushing himself to get to the source of the voices. Trouble, his instincts warned him. Find the younglings. He slipped into wolf form almost unconsciously, knowing he could run faster that way.

The wolf differed from the man. His armour and clothing had disappeared with his human skin, but the intelligence and hard edge in his green eyes showed he wasn't an animal. Dozens of scars cut across his thick, shaggy black pelt. In most places they were thin lines like a spider's web, but there were two marks that were unmistakably bullet wounds and one patch of scar tissue that spanned half his left ribcage. Running as he was, it took little time for him to come into view of the young people who had been screaming. He paused for the briefest of moments, ears pricked forward and nose twitching.

What he had found was a boar tore through one of the little people warriors, through the gut and had crashed him against a tree where the bleeding out body shivered. On the ground elsewhere was another already dead with its spear snapped in half, the pointy end still in the boar. There was one youngling left, he had black wolf ears and a black wolf tail. He looked, to be of the fifteen age looking little people and he had nervous round green eyes. His ears kept twitching and his tail swished. He looked at the wolf form of Vahşi and pursed his lips before crying.

"Brother help! I'm not strong yet!"

Vahşi scanned the clearing with as many senses as he could bring into play. The sight of the bodies made his stomach clench. They were too young. Too small. Neither were going to survive; he knew it instinctively. The boar had caught sight of him and grunted in warning, shaking its head. It glanced from Vahşi to the youngling, indecisive about which to attack, then lowered its head and charged the boy.

Vahşi snarled and leaped forward. He lowered his head and rammed the boar with his shoulder, knocking them both to the ground. A tusk ripped open one of his forelegs and he yelped instinctively. By the time they were back on their feet, the boar had clearly decided Vahşi was the more dangerous creature in the clearing. It charged the lupian, and Vahşi met it halfway, snarling and biting. He got a hold on the side of the boar's throat but it raked its tusks against his side so deeply that he had to let go to avoid being gutted. Vahşi backed away, keeping himself between the boar and the boy, snarling even as the blood flowed from his wounds. Eventually the boar could bleed out from his wound, but Vahşi wasn't willing to bet on it. Despite the pulsing pain in his leg and side, he started forward again, keeping his body low against the ground as a growl rumbled through his chest. Teeth bared and ears laid back, he circled the boar, which moved as he did to keep its tusks facing him. The boar kept spinning, bleeding, beady eyes on Vahşi but it yelped when the one who called him brother struck his spear into its side.

The little person grunted through his tears and did what he could to shove the spear deeper, blood pouring out and in fear the boar ran off, yanking on the spear the little lupian was holding, dragging him a few feet. The boar crashed into another tree and fell over, dying. The little lupian rolled around, holding at his elbows that were torn up and his ears kept flapping around, tail lowered. He whimpered and looked at Vahşi.

"Brother, brother, you okay?" He rushed over to put one of his adolescent hands on Vahşi's bloodied coat. Vahşi nuzzled his hand briefly and laid down, tired from the battle. His wounds were still leaking blood, and he knew he'd probably have to get help from Bolton and his metal man.The marked vulpian came with a the remaining males. The males under the vulpian's command frowned but the vulpian himself sneered at Vahşi's proclaimed brother. Vahşi's hackles raised in dislike. Marked or not, this vulpian youngling was almost distasteful.

"You did okay," he said snidely, not content about something. "I make you hunt again today." The little lupian nodded.

"I will make you happy leader. I promise." The corpses were pooling blood throughout the grass where they lay, young appearing bodies still and lifeless. The scent filled Vahşi's nostrils and he whined softly. So far he'd only seen younglings, but they probably had family. Family that had to be told what happened. Vahşi returned to being human, the transformation cloaked in a swirl of opaque green light. The blood was pouring faster now, and he stood up, holding his injured arm across his stomach. Another couple inches to the side and the boar would have ripped open his vein. He laid his other hand across the deepest part of the wound, instinctively trying to stop the flow of blood, and started walking in the direction he'd last seen Panos. For now, the bodies would have to stay where they were. Even Vahşi knew he needed help.

"Wait! Brother!" The little teenage lupian soon followed after with concern in his watery green eyes, cowlicks all over his black hair. A smile twitched at the corner of Vahşi's mouth and he waited for the teen to catch up with him before continuing. The other little people moved aside, parting and looking up at Vahşi with mixed faces as he walked off. When he got back to the tree Panos had been crashed against, having to hear concerned yipping from the little lupian along the way, Panos was laying his back against it, eyes shut - looking like he was taking an opportunity to model himself even though that wasn't clearly the case.

The purple hued silverette looked over at Vahşi with a vexed expression when he saw the blood pouring down the scared man's right side and the arm.

"By the gods, this does nothing good for us." Panos' sapphire eyes shot at Vahşi, who glared back, while he got to his feet and held his aching shoulder "What did you do?"

"We need herb help!" The little lupian told Vahşi, waving his tail with distress. Vahşi wasn't entirely sure what 'herb help' meant, exactly, but just about any kind of medical care would work for him. The bleeding needed to stop.

"They tried to take on a wild boar," Vahşi explained. "And when it went after this one I wolfed out and attacked it." A thought struck him and he looked down at the youngling. "What's your name, anyway, kid? You never said." The little lupian cocked his head.

"We need to go back to the ship." Panos heavily sighed, rubbing his right shoulder. He didn't give much of any attention to the littler lupian.

"Tuna," the mini person answered. "Why does big brother ask little brother name?" Vahşi decided not to answer this question but committed the name firmly to memory. Tuna grabbed Vahşi's unoccupied hand. "Home now for help!" Tuna tugged. Vahşi gave an accurate older-sibling groan and let Tuna pull him down the path. Panos sighed, he felt stiff and sore with all the running. The shirt made his nipples hurt. And begrudgingly he started waking the two miles back. Usually Vahşi would have no problem with such a hike, and even in his wounded state he kept up with Panos. About half a mile from the village, though, he tripped over his own feet and crashed to his knees, barely avoiding faceplanting into the ground. He muttered several curses and staggered back to his feet, shaking his hair out of his eyes. For the first time he noticed the path of blood he'd left behind him, and he stared at it in mute fascination for a moment before turning in the direction that would lead him to the village. The blood loss was affecting his mind and dulling his senses. He'd be fine in another day or so - lupians healed quickly - but at the moment he was rapidly deteriorating.

"Come on" Tuna said fearfully, holding tighter to the hand. Panos was dying, covered in sweat and pushing his hair that remained flawless behind his ears. A trial of the gods.

Panos turned to see Vahşi's state with tired but wide eyes. He needed him to make it through what was required to be done, whatever that was. The other teenager accompanying Vahşi grabbed onto his unwounded side to help keep Vahşi balanced. Although Vahşi would usually have objected to this much physical contact, at the moment he didn't mind half as much.

"You got yourself into this bloody affair and now you need to get yourself out of it." perhaps that was Panos' way of being kind. Vahşi glared at him for a moment but couldn't help a bit of a smirk from forming briefly on his lips. Together the three of them marched forward the last half mile. Inside the village Tuna began to flee to one of the hill homes on the right. Vahşi watched him go but didn't try to follow. Panos however, panting and straining, was trying to keep the bleeding Vahşi going forward to the ship. "Vahşi do not go limp now..."

"Shut up, Panos," Vahşi growled, his teeth clenched so tightly that his words were barely coherent. "And when we get there make sure Bolton won't keep Tuna out." Despite the fact he was nearly bleeding to death, Vahşi had his mind on the little vulpian youngilng. Hopefully Bolton would overlook Vahşi's supposed murder of Arkwright when faced with Panos, but Vahşi wasn't optimistic. In all likelihood, it would be a healer from the village who would be most helpful.

"There are only so many...grievances I'll take from you..." The silverette hissed hoarsely while keeping the slow, blood-trailing walk going. Vahşi managed a momentary grin despite the situation, but it quickly faded into a grimace of pain.Little people stared, dismayed, but did nothing. There was still another mile of the village itself to get through before the ship and a 5'6" slender built teenager who was already exhausted could only do so much. Both were hungry and the younger person had a shoulder wound that ached all the way through.

Vahşi's blood dripped and watered the mud path along the way. By now Panos was too broken to even complain or judge Vahşi. The miracle of getting to the edge of the village was the last of Panos' strength as he fell to a knee by the lupian, the man smelling his own blood overwhelmingly so. Vahşi couldn't keep standing on his own and fell gracelessly on his back. He stared up at the sky for a moment before closing his eyes against the rays of the sun and turning his head sideways. For a moment he considered wolfing, just to get himself to the help of the metal man, but somebody was moving toward him.

By the grace of the gods did Panos see Bolton running to them. He had bent down to help Panos stand and hold him close, the Lambros too tired to say otherwise.

"Help him..." Panos groaned and Bolton looked carefully, cautiously at Vahşi. Vahşi glared at him despite the fact he should be trying to avoid the one person who could actually help to heal him. Panos breathed in deeply, and then did nothing but turn around with Panos until the teenager coughed. "Please," Panos knew the magical words men wanted to hear "I love you." He gripped tight to Bolton's body and his fingers felt lab coat fabric covering a lean body. "I need you to...do this..." His sapphire eyes glinted and he looked up to Bolton with desperation. "Please," the Lambros began to cry tears down his sweaty face and he saw Bolton fold through his dropped facial expression.

"Fine, come" Bolton took hold of Vahşi to lead him to the ship, his blood getting over the floor of the craft too. Vahşi was too exhausted to even growl at him. One of his feet slipped in all the blood on the floor and he staggered against Bolton, who wrinkled his nose in distaste. In the medical room the metal person came, and without asking started to unhook the leather stands than bound Vahşi's armor. Bolton fled to get Panos that had been left outside.

"Remain still during treatment," the robot asked of Vahşi.

"I don't think I'm about to go anywhere," Vahşi replied. "Just hurry it up." He hated being at the mercy of anyone, human or not, especially in his wounded state. He didn't flinch when the robot sprayed something against his skin but his fingers clenched tightly and he was clearly distrustful of what was happening. The needle and thread were a more familiar sight, and he held still as the metal man started sewing his wounds together.

[Minkasha]

Akinasha

Panos Lambros & Vahşi

Spoiler: Panos & Vahşi part 3 

Spoiler: Panos' section 

Panos was stuck on the mud ground, his legs too sore to move him on. It was disgusting to feel the wet mud under making contact with the skin of his arms and elbows. He had been fighting to keep himself up from laying on the grass entirely, not seeing it as something acceptable, but his body crashed before his ego could and the Lambros prince fell face first into the mud, his signature hair flailing each way till it fluffed down across the blades of nature.

This wasn't acceptable to him. The person the gods have paired him with was a reckless daredevil who accomplished nothing but murder and nearly get himself killed. He was a useless oddity that Panos didn't like, Vahşi showed no respect to him. Of the men that had been in his company, Vahşi was nearly as anger provoking as his ex-husband.

He picked up on the footsteps coming his way but did nothing about it, his vision changing from dark to light when he found himself in Bolton's arms looking up to the brunette man. The teal eyes stared at him with a needy gaze that struck a cord of irritation within Panos' psyche. Don't be emotional, just help me. His brain ticked with pondering futility of the gods' trial.

The steps Bolton took made him bob around. He hated it, and decided, with great hesitation, to lay his head on Bolton's chest.

"You are in there. I know it" Bolton's crisp voice said, but Panos didn't respond to it, taking in the vibrations his voice made when he spoke. It made him dream of Lycus. He wanted his emperor, the man's skin at his fingertips. He wanted his empire, every luxury at his fingertips.

The teenager was taken into the ship, Bolton working to not step on the trail of blood that was a sharp contrast of the singularly white lit surfaces. To the end of the singular hallway of the ship was a black wall which transformed into a doorway by simply evaporating an archway to walk through. A circular platform carried the duo a floor, another wall to go and come back with Bolton's passage - technology that Panos didn't have the mental strength to process.

In this hallway Panos was led into another room, this room actually dark till the man carrying him stepped inside - a bedroom. He saw the bed fold out of the wall, large with white sheets. He was placed on it, welcomed to some sense of comfort he used to have before the gods took him.

The Lambros prince was kissed once more, Bolton bent over him. Panos gripped the man's collar of his shirt, but his grasp was feeble. He didn't have permission to touch him.

"Remember me, Panos." Bolton whispered as their lips pulled apart, the divine-blooded kept his eyes looking away to one of the many blank white walls, denying contact of those teal, needy, eyes...

Vahşi awoke. How long it had been, he wasn't sure. His right side felt much better, sprinkled with light soreness. But his arm pain had gone away completely, seeing his skin shut with clear stitching holding the wound shut. No doubt this was how his side appeared to. He was half naked, his dried blood a crusty pool by the right side of the white dimly illuminated table. There was a delay to realize but he was not in the medical area that he had been left in before. When his senses registered the difference in location, he sat up and cautiously probed where his wounds had been. Once he was satisfied with the work the metal man had done he looked around, trying to blink a lingering tiredness away.

He was in a cell. The realization that he'd been betrayed while unconscious hit him suddenly, and he had no doubt that Panos had helped or at least stood aside and let it happen. For a moment he thought he was going to fall asleep, and it felt like half his mind had been replaced with a ball of fabric, but he forced himself to set his discomfort aside to look around. When he focused on specific parts of his cell, the tiredness ebbed slowly away until it was lurking in the back of his mind rather than coming close to sending him to sleep.

What Vahşi saw was a string of white bars of a wall, through them he saw an empty cell across. To his left was a toilet built into the wall and a plain sink made of the same smooth material of the walls. There was a bag of clear fluid being suspended by a hook on the wall that the table was folded out from. It was flowing through a tube into his veins. He felt a sprinkle of tiredness hit him but what was really predominate was his hunger. As if to confirm this, his stomach growled quietly. Vahşi ignored it as a sound reached his ears, sounding almost muffled at first but growing clearer as the source came closer.

There were clicking steps and Bolton showed his angry filled young man features. He stood firmly at the other side of the bars. Vahşi's face twisted in hate for a moment, and had Bolton been standing even remotely close enough for Vahşi to reach him the lupian would undoubtedly have gone for his throat. As it was he simply sat on the table and fought his emotions down. In a few moments his features were a neutral mask, and he stared dully at the young man. He wanted to ask if Tuna was safe but he didn't want to risk giving Bolton an idea to kidnap the youngling.

"You are the strangest specimen, dangerous. As a courtesy to my partner I keep you conscious. But in Quita you'll be examined more thoroughly."

Vahşi didn't bother answering. He pressed his spine against the corner of the cell and closed his eyes, resting the back of his head against the wall. Although he appeared indifferent, he hoped Bolton would go away. The human's scent irritated him. It wasn't the first time he'd been locked up. It wouldn't be the first time he would escape. Except, this time, the red-haired woman wasn't with him. His Farla. For a moment his eyes opened and bestowed a look of hopeless longing on the blank wall opposite him. Bolton's threat about Quita didn't bother him. Not having Farla with him prompted worry that she was on her own and in trouble, just like he was.

Spoiler: Panos Section 

The sludge of brown slid down Panos’ pale skin as the warm waters rushed down his lithe curved body. The mist of the heated water filled the white bathroom, his eyes felt clear but his heart felt heavy. Too many questions plagued him, even after his sleep. The stands of purple tinted silver fell down him in a watery grace, pushed back over his healing shoulder. He hissed but quieted himself when he heard steps come into the bathroom. The show was clear, its surface never fogged, leave him in full exposure to a stranger he had no affinity for or knowledge of. But Bolton looked at him like some sad painting Panos had painted years ago.

He saw Bolton rub his eyes in wariness.

“Partner, we are going to depart for Quinta after I clock in the necessary hours for flight” The silverette blinked, feeling a few water droplets fly away. His heart, heavy still, skipped. That wasn’t what the gods want, surly. Though he knew nothing he also felt that something was undone here, an intuition. Gut feelings were new and strange to the introvert, the only other being his fluttering, quick desire and passion for Lycus.

“May I…ask for the sudden choice?” Bolton stared, Panos kept his body turned to keep the most vulnerable parts of himself away from eye’s view.

“I am concerned for your condition; your wound and your bloodwork have come up suspiciously. The medical bot says your wound matches that of a 20th century weapon and your blood couldn’t be analyzed coherently.” Panos was to protest but the taller teenager raised a hand “I know you feel well, but things have not been the same. I must be sure, objectively sure you are okay”

The prince found himself unsure of how to proceed, afraid. Afraid that this spiral of choices, if allowed, could ruin everything. His mind spun to calculate, how to out play Bolton and stop this from happening. While thinking he wrung out his hair, water loudly splashing below, buying time.

“And Vahşi, what of him?”

“W-“ Bolton stammered and Panos turned fully to look at him, slowly pushing the glass that kept them apart. He grabbed a towel, again, buying more time. “-He is going to be a newest Akishan specimen. Whoever designed them made this strange exception, leap in intellect and prowess” Bolton began to rub his smooth skin chin. “I have to dabble in that, we need to when you’re better. It will do well for our careers. I’m affirmative on it” Panos kept his face its stone cold beauty, walking closer with the towel wrapped around him at the chest. As much as he’d enjoy the imposter to be sliced and diced, it was against the greater goal: his survivability.

Bolton rubbed his eyes again.

“And those markings on your arm. Spontaneous tattoos were not part of our technological capabilities.” The young man chuckled, but Panos found it sad, pitiable. He stepped out of the bathroom to the bedroom. Asking him to see Vahşi would be too obvious…

“You’re tired” Panos said dryly, going to the tall white dresser and pulling the same copy and paste scientist clothes to wear. “Go to bed”

“I will” Bolton nodded, slowly starting to undress with his lab coat first. He was watching Panos dress. “Where are you going?” The watched teenager pulled up black dress pants, strangely finding them to fit his odd frame, and zipping them up.

“Lab notes. I need to get myself back together” Panos frowned to Bolton’s direction.

“I don’t believe you, partner. I’m sorry”

“You don’t trust me?” Panos kept himself calm, a mask as he was trying to guide this situation the way he needed it to.

“You are erratic in your current state” A white button up was thrown on, slowly being done.

“I am not sure what else there is to be done or said if you cannot trust me. I speculate if there is much about us if you cannot have trust”

Bolton frowned.

“You do not even speak the same…where’s my swearing little scientist?” The teenage researcher said with a crack in his overly accented voice. He came forward and grabbed Panos’ shoulders, wearing nothing but white underwear. “I’m scared and confused, I will be honest. Where are you in there Panos?”

The Lambros prince froze while he was being shaken back and forth. It broke his ability to be calm and he smacked Bolton’s face a third time since knowing him. Bolton backed away and stared wide eyed.

“STOP TOUCHING ME!” Panos screamed, feeling fear and anxiety, his heart palpating too fast. Bolton looked around with this teal eyes, an aggressive stance and expression. A hand went down his face and he began storming out of the room in his undergarments. “W..Where are you going?” Panos asked, wiping away his fright filled tears. Bolton didn’t answer.

Panos followed him to, seeing him on a war path to another room. It was a lab, with many aching white legged tables that had beakers, computer screens built into the surfaces, and protruding scientific machines from the walls Panos couldn’t begin to guess what they did. But his sapphire eyes did see Bolton picked up a syringe.

“What are you doing?” Panos asked, he couldn’t stop his tears. He couldn’t endure strange men touching him. Men liked taking.

“It is a sedative, for your safety” Panos need not hear more before he began to flee, barefoot and shirt half buttoned to the end of the hall. He remembered, and just as it had done for Bolton before, it vanished and prompted the platform. “PANOS!” Bolton screamed, making the prince lean up against the back wall in terror - the sides of his jaw dripping with tears.

The platform went down, and he came out with a mad dash to the one door that was open, the medical bay. But Vahşi wasn’t in there. He screamed at the robot that was standing still in the center of the room.

“WHERE’S THE SUBJECT!?”

“Subject is on third floor, in cell B” Panos paled, already hearing Bolton’s slapping steps. He ran further into the medical bay, but there wasn’t anywhere to hide, all the laying surfaces had no solid bases, only covered legs or were held by the wall they extended from.

Bolton showed up at the doorway, he too was crying and that made Panos all the more afraid.

“Stop this” Panos pleaded. “You’re scaring me” His voice shook with genuine emotion. Yet, Bolton shook his head.

“I know this must be disadvantageous from you current perspective. But it is for your safety” Panos whipped his head the direction of the robot.

“He’s trying to detain me”

“He has activated protocol A-Com X112” Panos didn’t need further word from the metallic voice to understand he was alone in this. Bolton drew closer, Panos desperately looked around and grabbed a medical tray, but the robot put a hand on his wrist before he could raise the tray. The robot wasn’t strong, but it was enough to hold him down.

“Stop, please…stop please!” Panos jumped around more as Bolton came, he was failing his gods. When Bolton towered over him, the needle pointing to his flesh, the divine-blooded felt a euphoria bubble from within him, a sudden sense of power. From this feeling came forth an outside reaction that had Panos speechless; from his hands grapevines bearing purple and green grapes sprung out. Their thin wooden tendrils curving and snaking up Bolton who screamed violently. The vines came up to wring around Bolton’s throat and detach from Panos’ hands. He saw Bolton struggle with them, falling to his knees. Panos took the syringe off the floor and ran. He felt the blood presence of his godly heritage, giving him enough courage to keep going.

The royal teenager fled to the platform, yelling at the walls for it to go the third floor. It worked somehow as when the wall went away he saw cells instead of doors. Panting and still fighting his fears he ran around till he saw Vahşi. Slamming his hands into that cell, he shook the bars, but rather it shook him. He didn’t know how long that’d hold Bolton.

Vahşi had waited until he was sure he was alone before removing the tube from his arm. It wasn't long before the effects of the drug faded even more, leaving him able to function at his normal levels. Only a few moments were needed for him to find that there were no hidden escape routes out of his cell. The door was operated by some kind of lock he couldn't break, which didn't really surprise him. Everything about this white building was strange. After bodily slamming the bars of the cell several times he returned to the surface he'd been laying on when he first woke up, ribs and shoulder aching.

The last time this had happened, he'd spent most of his time waiting. Building up information on the guards, shifts, and weapons. It had taken him months to break free. This time he didn't have months. Panos was going to be more or less helpless on his own, the lupian was sure. So far he'd displayed very little strength or endurance. Vahşi propped his elbows on his knees and threaded his fingers through his hair.

After what seemed like hours, Vahşi heard yelling. He lifted his head and focused on the noise. Panos' voice rose into his hearing but there were no clear words to be distinguished. The lupian got to his feet and moved toward the front of the cell, searching for more information. Bolton's hateful tones joined soon afterward and Vahşi growled instinctively, feeling it vibrate in his chest more than hearing it. A door down the hall from Vahşi's cell made a dinging noise and Vahşi stiffened, backing a few steps away from the front of the cell. Rather than Bolton, whom he'd been expecting, it was Panos who came into view.

Vahşi's face showed complete incredulity that Panos was there. His expression grew to ludicrous proportions when Panos slammed into the bars, his body shaking as much as the cell. "Don't do that," Vahşi said, speaking as fast as he could while keeping his words distinct. "Look for a key or code that you can use to open it the way it's supposed to be opened. If I couldn't get it with force you won't be able to. Hurry," he added, unable to stop himself. "Please." Despite the fact that he'd never been captive on a spaceship before, this cell held memories and fear, and he needed to get out. His fingernails scratched briefly at the bar supporting the lock as he stared desperately at Panos. The prince shook the bars again, fearfully looking where the doorway was to be. He whipped his head quickly up at Vahşi, his sapphires reddened by his tearing. Vahşi was growing increasingly worried but tried to keep his face straight. Panos was obviously panicking himself.

"I..I..." Panos bit his bottom lip in stress and slapped the wall by the bars, as there was nothing. Nothing like the movies showed or anything Vahşi said. Deciding how the platform worked, Panos opened his mouth and yelled, "OPEN!" Vahşi jumped at the sudden noise, but to the surprise of them both the bars slide down and Panos stepped back, his body sore and he fell on his backside. "Help me please." Panos wiped his face. "He just attempted to drug me." Panos stared fearfully at the doorway wall.

"We need to get you weapons," Vahşi said. "You need to find some way to get us to the armory. They have to have one. Do you still have the gun I gave you when we went hunting with the younglings?" Panos looked at him, stupefied by the question. Vahşi noticed the syringe in Panos' hands but didn't consider it a very reliable weapon, especially in the hands of someone as untrained in combat as Panos. For himself, he was confident that between his human combat skills and sharp-toothed wolf side he would be able to handle anybody they found on the ship.

"I...dropped it, I think. I was tired I don't remember." Vahşi rolled his eyes and huffed a sigh but couldn't really be that mad at Panos. After all, he had come here specifically to rescue him. Panos pursed his pout lips, staring up at Vahşi. He tossed the syringe at Vahşi's feet. "Don't let him drug me, please." Panos pleaded again.

"He won't drug you," Vahşi promised. He glanced at the ceiling and rolled his eyes as if about to do one of the stupidest things in his life. "Once we get closer to where Bolton is, you need to stay behind me. No matter what happens, keep me between the two of you. I'll handle him much better than you will." Vahşi started walking down the corridor toward the lift Panos had come out of. "This thing will probably only answer to you, so tell it where to go. I know you're not going to like this, but we need to go back to wherever you left Bolton so that we can contain him."

Panos slowly worked himself back to his feet, grunting in pain. He hid behind Vahşi as the doorway gave up its secret and showed the platform, and cylinder tube, white walls. When they walked in, it was crowed with the two of them side by side. More so Vahşi dominating the space with his wider and taller body.

"I think it would be wiser to simply go out the main exit of this building..." The feminine prince took a moment to collect himself, but he shivered. "Then we could run into the cesspool of a village and hide. You have a tendency to get yourself wounded...running would be the better solution." Panos put his soft fingers to his lips, lightly curling them nervously.

Vahşi waited until Panos was finished before shaking his head. "If we run, he won't have anything stopping him from leaving the planet and coming back with reinforcements. Then we'd be putting the village in danger and sacrificing our chances at finding the others." He glanced critically at Panos and added, "They would make sure you stayed safe. Bolton wouldn't let them hurt you even though he wanted to drug you. So if you want to run you can. I wouldn't let him take me alive again. That means I need to deal with Bolton now. He'll keep coming after me." Panos pushed back some wispy strands of his purplish silver hair behind his ear, a tic of his unease.

"It would be completely stupid to leave you..." Panos kept behind Vahşi and heavily sighed. Vahşi shrugged as if he was indifferent but he was glad Panos was stayign with him. In all honesty, the last thing they needed was to split up. "First floor." Instantly the wall was sealed and they felt a sense of decreased weight as the platform dropped. Vahşi snorted in alarm but kept his feet, though he swayed a bit with the motion of the platform. It only took several seconds before they were greeted with an underwear sporting Bolton at the end of the hall on one knee, aiming a long black chunky modeled gun, length of Bolton's forearm, at the open doorway. Panos shrieked and Vahşi flinched at the assault on his sensitive ears, frowning at the prince.

"Panos, you're sick..." Bolton had shaky hands and his face while focused through a scope, was still manic and stuck with emotion. "Maybe it is magic. There is a way to take care of you. But you need to trust me, partner. Please."

"Tell me you know he's lying," Vahşi said to Panos, tilting his chin toward his shoulder so he could get a glimpse of Panos.

Magic? Panos curled even more behind the lupian and looked at his hand. The tingle of divinity, of his ancestor Dionysus had been in him. He knew it, felt it. Was it a gift to endure this godly trial? Bolton's manic behavior brought back a past he loathed.

He said nothing to Bolton's words. But he didn't know what Vahşi was to do in this situation. Where was Vahşi to go if Bolton pulled the trigger?

"Panos isn't sick," Vahşi said to Bolton, slowly raising both his hands. Although he was confident in himself, he didn't want Panos getting caught in the crossfire like he had in the last world. "But most of all, he isn't yours. Whatever he does has to be his own choice, not one he makes for you. Put down the weapon, Bolton. You and Panos can talk this through. While I'm sure you would love to put a bullet in me, what if you accidentally shoot him?"

Bolton gritted his teeth and pulled the trigger. The black gun shot out a red beam of energy projection neither Vahşi nor Panos had ever seen before. It zipped fast, but Vahşi had been tensed and ready. He spun to grab Panos and slammed the prince and himself against a wall of the lift. The lupian had no choice but to press himself firmly against the soft bodied Panos who was already in a state of shock. The prince groaned as it made his sore shoulder spike in pain.

Panos coughed as the air was knocked out of him by bony joints and muscular limbs. Bolton fired a few more times, each of the shots landing with an electrical sound to the back of the open platform leaving black circular stains and to Vahşi the scent of electrical charged smoke. Vahşi ducked his head instinctively, even though there was little chance of Bolton's shots hitting them. Panos' breath hit Vahşi's chest, and everything went quiet for Panos' ears.

Vahşi could hear Bolton whimpering mutably. The aftermath of the shots were much better for him than if it had been a regular gun with a loud discharge. Having so many shots in close quarters would have deafened him for days. "Don't look," he told Panos, rushing his words as he turned away from him and ran for the doorway of the platform. He moved so quickly that his boots barely gave him traction on the slick floor. Just outside the doors he threw himself forward, but landed on all four paws rather than hitting the ground. He jumped to the side to avoid another wildly fired shot from Bolton's weapon and snarled at him, daring him to try again. His hackles bristled as he bared his teeth and lunged toward Bolton, hoping to disarm rather than to kill but comfortable with either outcome. Bolton screamed and his body limped in fear of the oncoming wolf.

Vahşi's teeth dug into the flesh of Bolton's neck, not having much choice as the researcher had rendered himself defenseless and all but threw his neck into his wolf bite. The taste of blood filled his lupian muzzle, making crimson of his teeth and tongue, death coughs filled his ears, vibrations filling his body. His paws crashed on Bolton's bleeding body, the young man in nothing but underwear shaking around and gurgling on his own blood, white flesh filled with bite marks. Vahşi tasted the iron in his mouth. It reminded him of the fight with the boar, when Tuna had been crying behind him. He hoped Panos would obey him. The last way he wanted to tell Panos he was a lupian was by ripping a man's throat out in front of him.

Panos had covered his eyes but the sounds of death down the hall weren't missed and Vahşi could hear Panos cry out again, not aware or knowledgeable to death. The Lambros prince felt sickness fill him when Bolton kept gurgling. He slid himself down the wall of the platform into a ball, body sore and mind wrecked with anxieties from multiple sources past and present.

Vahşi witnessed Bolton's teal eyes squint and quiver with his lips as he made ugly expressions of death. Blood pooled from his neck, artery and veins broken. He was dying in nothing but his underwear. When he finally stopped struggling beneath the heavy weight of Vahşi's canine body, the lupian released his hold and stepped back. Bolton's weapon laid near his hand but Vahşi didn't go near it. He still wasn't sure exactly how the thing worked, and he didn't want to risk hurting himself with it by nosing around while still a wolf.

In the medical room Vahşi's nose struggled over the blood, but managed to smell a copy of Panos' flowery zest coming from the medical room. His head tilted in confusion. Just a minute ago he'd ordered Panos to stay on the platform, and the prince hadn't passed him. Vahşi didn't know the source of this other scent. Moving cautiously, Vahşi left Bolton's body and approached the medical room, one forepaw tracking bloody prints across the white floor.

Coming into the medical room Vahşi saw the robot rushing past him with its metal ribbed legs to Bolton's corpse. He moved out of its way, offering a soft warning growl as to its proximity but nothing else. On the floor were beautiful green leafed grapevines ripped apart and laced with individual green and purple grapes in wild assortment down its think golden brown wooden, vine body. The perfumed Panos' fragrance and the berries had the dimmest golden glow within their succulent surfaces. Vahşi sniffed at them but was careful not to touch, since he had no idea where they had come from.

"I DO NOT WANT TO BE HERE ANYMORE!" Panos yelled with distress from the platform. Vahşi whirled from where he was sniffing the grapevines and ran back to the place he'd killed Bolton. The metal man was bent over the body but Vahşi focused on the platform. He trotted toward it, nails clicking on the floor, and remembered to return to his human self just a few feet from Panos' view. Now his boots scuffed the floor as he carelessly joined Panos. "You hurt?" he asked, scanning Panos' body for injuries. He saw the statuesque prince hold himself small, pulled into a ball crying his sapphires out once again.

"You killed him, didn't you?" Panos asked the lupine, looking up to meet his harsh eyes. In the lupian's stomach it was becoming ever more aware that it had not eaten in some time.

Vahşi nodded."I only meant to disarm him, but he didn't defend himself. It was like Arkwright again." The Lambros prince pondered quickly just how much of a unintentional killer this man was, compared to his intended kills.

Panos looked down into his knees and hid himself.

"I don't wish to see him." His muffled voice picked up by Vahşi's ears.

"Yeah, I bet you don't," Vahşi said sympathetically. He understood Panos' reluctance and there was nothing derogatory in his voice. The fact that his stomach chose to loudly make its hunger known at that moment rather undermined his words. "Panos, I don't want to push you but this place won't respond to me. As you can tell, I need food. So do you, probably. Come on. Gotta get on your feet." He kept his voice gentle but there was a definitive edge to his last words that showed he intended on being obeyed. With Vahşi's help, Panos was able to standing on his throbbing legs. It was then, in passing of the killer's bare chest, that he saw so many scars, really notice them and he frowned. Vahşi saw the look and what caused it but said nothing. What would he have said, anyway? Later, maybe, he could try to explain it, but for now his stomach demanded he settle himself on a different task. This man was nothing but violence, Panos thought. Why was he always surrounded by violent men?

"It's hard to stand currently." Panos' face dripped a tear or two. "I need a moment..." He paused, remembering he had said those exact words to a specific violent man in recent history. He couldn't come here and harass him, could he? Vahşi huffed a sigh but waited for Panos to say he was ready to go. His stomach growled again, low and rumbling, and Vahşi gave Panos an almost pleading look. Though he said nothing, he was clearly impatient to get a move on.

Panos covered his eyes with a hand and took meek steps forward from the platform. It didn't take him far for him to smell Bolton's blood. The metallic scent allowed the prince's imagination to fill with gory imagery, making his body stiff. Vahşi noticed Panos' stiffness and had a good idea about its cause. He kept an eye on the metal man, suspicious of any being that didn't have a scent to it.

"Beginning sanitation process. Moving corpse to morgue." The prince swallowed hard, seeing nothing but the lines made from his held together fingers.

"Robot, we need food. Give us food...please."

"I will retrieve two nutrients. Please step aside." In Vahşi's opinion, 'nutrients' didn't indicate a very appetizing meal, but at the moment he wasn't about to complain about any edible things that came his way. What Panos didn't see that Vahşi did was the robot using its metal ribbed arms to hold Bolton's dripping corpse to its chest and begin walking down the hall in their direction. His sharp hearing picking up the quietest dripping noises of Bolton's spilt blood.

Panos jerked from Vahşi to lean against a hallway wall. The lupian didn't try to hold him back. He'd seen people deal with their first up-close death experience in various ways. At least Panos hadn't shut down and refused to process anything in his world. Maybe he wasn't as hopeless as Vahşi had initially thought.

It occurred to Vahşi that he could still hear Bolton's blood dripping on the floor. He glanced casually over his shoulder in the direction he'd last seen the metal man and did a double take. "What are you doing?" he demanded harshly, instantly going on guard. Since this metal man was the last thing he'd seen before waking up in a cell, he heartily distrusted it. "Panos, stay behind me." He inhaled, trying to sense anything unusual about the metal man or the corpse it held.

Panos said nothing, but gave Vahşi a huff as his answer. Yet the robot kept walking forward, simply carrying the corpse and going past both of them to the platform. Vahşi realized he was being paranoid but he didn't really care. The scentless metal man disturbed him. It wasn't natural.

"I will return with requested nutrients momentarily," the robot said before the wall filled in.

"Why am I always stuck being associated with people like you? Murderers." Panos' soft voice condemned, his eyes guarded from the droplet trail of Bolton's drying blood.

Vahşi shrugged uncomfortably and leaned back against the wall. "I didn't mean to kill Bolton," he pointed out. "Or Arkwright." He ran his hands over his face and sighed. When he spoke his voice was muffled by his fingers. "It all started with those damn humans turning against us." He tilted one arm and rubbed a finger in circles over half a dozen small scars just below his elbow, marking where the needles had dug into his skin, again and again. "They drugged us to keep us under control. The only time we weren't half-conscious was when they were teaching us how to kill people. When it started I hated it, but I was willing to do whatever kept me out of the drug's false reality. Eventually it didn't matter. I was too messed up. But I guess you're gonna have to tolerate me until we get out of here. And you, you're lucky, you know that? You had your Emperor to take care of you." Vahşi nodded to himself. "I hope you get back home someday. That's where you belong, with him. In the meantime, I'm sorry you're stuck with a murdering wolf-boy." He spoke the last word with a darkly bitter edge; it had been the humans' derogatory term for lupians held under their control.

"Wolf-boy..." Panos repeated quietly. Why did this murderous man have a dissociation with humanity? A new emotion came into Panos' angst cauldron: confusion. The more Vahşi spoke the more it provoked questions to be asked and assumed answered to shown erroneous. But the fundamentals of what reality was were already in the back-burner of Panos' mind, why would this many be any different? Why would this man be a consistent factor from his sense of reality?

This philosophical dive gave no cure to any of the prince's troubles.

"You never knew that cost of what it took me to meet my Emperor," Panos corrected "Wh- no, what are you?"

"I'm human enough to be a 'who' rather than a 'what'," Vahşi told him, sarcasm tinging his words. "Although I'm not really completely human, I'm lupian with probably some vulpian back in my lines..." His voice trailed off as he realized he'd probably completely lost Panos and he waved a hand dismissively. "Let me just show you." For a moment his body was wrapped in a solid cone of green light, and when it lifted the wolf stood in Vahşi's place. There were more scars visible on his canine body, ones that didn't show up when he was human. There were several marks like rope burns across his snout and behind his ears where he'd once worn a muzzle. The scars on his body were even more obvious now, since they were hairless patches in an otherwise thick coat. Vahşi looked up at Panos, and if a wolf could smirk he was doing it. Surprise.

And surprise it was, because the fair prince braved putting down his hand, his eyes quickly picked up on the pool and droplets of blood to fall straight onto the battered wolf in front of him. Vahşi didn't even have time to react, left to witness the quickening speed of the prince's face pale face turn even more so, his sapphires gloss and his smaller body crash to the ground. He fainted. Vahşi nearly laughed at Panos' reaction. It was better than he'd be expecting, honestly. While he couldn't have said exactly what he was expecting, it would have included a lot more yelling and panicking from Panos. Since Panos hadn't hurt himself in the fall, Vahşi decided to leave him where he was until he woke up. He saw nothing unusual in sleeping on the floor, having done it for years himself.

The platform wall opened up and the robot came back with two black plastic bags that were thick with water and what the wolf could smell were grains and other natural ingredients. Vahşi was grateful that the 'nutrients' weren't filled with synthetic materials and also mildly surprised he didn't smell any poison. Thick tube straws were sticking out of the top.

"Nutrients are prepared."

The wolf disappeared into green light for a moment before Vahşi reappeared. Since Panos was unconscious on the floor, he decided to take both bags and reached cautiously for them, still wary of the metal man.

"Enjoy your meal"