FSE

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///

Setting down the recording device, Tai thought for a moment.

"Fuck, man... Took a bullet for someone? I know I wouldn't have the balls..."

The cat shrugged, lower body still covered by the blanket.

He'd lost track of time, it would be night anywhere else.

"I... I dunno. If I was conscious of it, or at least more so, I probably wouldn't have."

Garcia looked up at the large skylight window casting permanent sunlight; or at least until winter next month.

"I just can't believe you loved her. Sounds like a bitch."

"It was impossible not to fall in love with her."

"So Jake and Alvin didn't?"

"They got scared away."

The coyote gave a snicker.

"By you?"

"By her."

The coin Garcia had been idly flipping resounded with a metallic echo as he snatched it out of the air and set it into his pocket.

"Never get involved with women, I'm telling you..."

"Pfft. 30 year old guy like you, talking like"-

Tai remembered Garcia's complexities.

The coyote gave a grin at his expense.

"I just don't understand them. Now guys on the other hand..."

Tai raised an eyebrow.

"Never told me you went that direction."

"Well, cute guys like you are never gay."

A devilish grin spread across the cat's face.

"Bet?"

It took a moment for the coyote to look over, the same grin contagiously spreading.

"What you trying to say, kid?"

"Not like we have much else to do, wanna go in one of the warmer rooms and fool around?"

What was almost a giggle erupted from the coyote as Tai stood up and walked over to him.

Maybe he was lightheaded- he wouldn't put it past Garcia to be drunk, especially when he'd kept quiet the whole recording.

As for the cat, he had no fucking clue what he was doing but he hadn't touched anyone in a good month.

It had been about 6 hours since his rescue, maybe he was still drugged up too...

As their muzzles drew playfully close, there was a slight tremor.

Only the cat freezing up, Garcia grabbed one of his cold hands and squeezed it.

"Happens all the time. Drills, icecaps, global warming... Let's just get back to"-

With a loud bang the center of the room exploded in magnificent light, the two falling to the ground and then scampering behind a holo-table.

Not a second later the entire base seemed to be coming apart, fiery blasts erupting in every place but right on top of theirs, the coyote putting up some sort of shield.

As the explosions died down after a full minute, the shield wore down.

Everywhere that had been lit by a clear Antarctician sunlight before was lit by orange fire.

The two stood, unsure of what to do.

"Your guts still in, Tai?"

"I-I think so... You?"

"Um... A little shaken, but... The hell did this?"

A footstep.

The two did a quick 180, right arms igniting in red and purple flames respectively.

At least 30 people stood across the room, the smoke where the first and biggest explosion had occurred still thick but showing in answer at least 15 multicolored lights.

They stood there until the smoke dissipated.

As it did, Tai watched their faces.

All the same expression.

Not love.

Not hate.

But all the same.

A single woman stepped forward, her arm engulfed in green flames.

"Garcia and The Speaker... You will be taken back to the Dead Zone. Resist and you will be executed. Run and we will find you again. Come quietly, and you will live."

She was a Caracal, ears taut and heightened, eyes almost impossible to look into.

For once, Tai deferred.

"Garcia?"

The coyote continued staring ahead, his arm still raised against this woman.

Something in Tai told him that she could wipe them off this earth... Maybe not alone, but with those behind her...

"G-Garcia?"

"We won't surrender! You bunch of fuckin' crazies have been chasing me for the greater of a decade! What makes you think..."

As realization crossed Garcia's eyes, so did betrayal.

A sudden backhand to Tai's face and the cat fell to one knee, the arms igniting just to boiling point.

Garcia's chest rose and fell at a heavy rate, and he looked between the two.

"You... You led them here?!"

"N-No! I don't even know who they are! I swear!"

With a snarl Garcia turned on them.

"Jabari! Take him, he's The Speaker! I'm not strong enough anymore!"

"Wha- don't leave me, please! If they're working for"-

"We work for no force of man, Tai. We serve Janus. And we serve the Tribe."

As the room's energy began to dwindle, a few of the weaker in the group collapsed, supported by their allies.

Tai almost instantly passed out, Garcia still holding on...

One... More... Jump...

But as he imagined his hideout in Venice, it was just another thought to be swept away in the wind.

///

Upon opening his eyes again, Tai found he was in a square room, very small.

It wasn't drab, it wasn't fancy... It looked to be made of simple rock with reed mats for flooring.

A draft.

He looked behind him to an opening, a balcony of sorts overlooking the sea.

For a while land continued on both sides, spires of rock jutting out on occasion, and he was at the vertex.

Sounds of wind chimes, birds.

Upon closer inspection the bamboo rails and floor were all covered by a net.

So, he was being held.

A locked door back through the room confirmed it.

He'd been laid on blankets, and beside those blankets was a small black rectangle, three green triangles upon it.

They'd been graceful enough to let him hold onto that, then...

But who were they?

He knew Garcia was in Antartica and hiding for a reason, but Tai thought it was simply from the GRA and Jinn...

The hell were those people? Garcia called that caracal Jabari or something along those lines...

And from their arms... Were they all...

No, that was impossible. Amira was the last known Janus born and she was 13 or 14... And these people sure as hell weren't infants...

Come to think of it the majority, for afflicts, didn't look anywhere younger than 35.

But they mentioned the Dead Zone as well, the stretch of land that split Africa in half, what no man could intrude on for penalty of death.

Not that anyone owned it but you'd just never come back from it.

And The Speaker...

Whatever the hell that meant. Tai just figured they were a bunch of crazy bastards, there was no way this was the Dead Zone.

Then again Garcia used that same word and...

Damn it, so many questions and Garcia was as always, simply unwilling to explain.

He had noting binding him to the coyote, but Garcia needed him for something.

As his foot accidentally kicked the recording device, he remembered it was still there.

Well, not like he had anything else to do...

///

Lynx

City of the Damned

November 23rd, 0530 hours

The sun was just breaking, the small visors I had over my eyeholes tinting.

Or at least, the one that worked.

They'd know to respond whenever I looked through my scope but right now I just wanted to appreciate the view.

I can't appreciate much. All I know is war.

After this is all over I'm going to be dead or a bounty hunter.

I know Gyn's going to sweep me under the rug.

I can't kill him. I believe in him, even if he wants to kill me.

But I can appreciate a damn good sunrise.

Scarlet red, that strange shade that no one in Jinn used for their faction yet.

I'd asked Gynezis to adopt it but what few soldiers we had were crimson with the crossed lightning bolts.

GSS shared that with us... It all came back to-

Actually we'll get back to that later.

I can appreciate the sun.

The afterimage of hundreds of years of nuclear war.

...

Abandoned cities, let me rephrase myself.

Skyscrapers, no windows, all blackened or grayed or tanned.

Shells of cars, electronic things.

Nothing survives but the green growing on everything.

I looked to my right and a large patch of ivy covered a streak down the building.

I was dangling upside down from a 80 story skyscraper, by the way.

I didn't get to that, I was rambling... Sorry.

The GRA was currently sending a group of their officials down through Thai Myanmar, the coast wasn't patrolled though so it was a gamble.

Wounded soldiers were going home on the magnatrains, Jinn still kept their word there at least. If any officials got caught going through it was a death sentence.

Every coast was marked with Cities of the Damned, as they called them, for proximity to ancient military bases.

If they didn't rebuild them. The GRA swept old things under the rug, so hard to be a totalitarian state in a wasteland...

My orders from my one superior were to simply come here and kill.

Indiscriminately.

Of course, value officials over regulars but after I was done a fair share of both were going to be dead.

As the caravan came into view, I scoped in.

All the officials were in heavy armor vans, tanks, the like.

Foot soldiers walking around beside them.

I never understood why the latter took place, it was just guaranteed death for them and the slowing down of the others.

It was an early warning system, pretty much. If someone dropped dead just bolt for it.

Between me and my targets was a street and several skyscrapers. I was looking through the alleys.

I took a pistol similar to a drill from my cloak and aimed it high at the thinnest skyscraper across the street.

It took about 5 seconds for the steel cord to reach, a red light on the pistol telling me I had latched.

I took a breath.

And then I let go.

I was ripped through the air towards the skyscraper, this was perhaps the main reason why I kept my weight so low...

Slamming into the window, I'd botched and as spots danced in my vision I hung limp.

Fuck...

I was still shaken up, my charge was out there unprotected and covered in blood last I saw him.

Kuro and Watanabe were both dead. After they paid and armed the civilian populace to ambush GRA they detonated three bombs, one of which didn't go off.

That one was in the meeting room.

When the rest of Jinn went after the bastards they found them both in nooses with the insignia of a known anarchist faction on the wall behind them.

And when I asked if he was injured Gynezis screamed at me to chase down the GRA officials and kill them.

Capture at least one. Or try.

The worst bit was he'd known in advance of Kuro and Watanabe's plans.

And he hadn't seen fit to tell me.

With a cry of frustration I kicked in the fragile window and looked around.

No scavengers, but I'd wager I wasn't the only assassin preying on this convoy.

...

I still didn't know if that was good or bad...

...

My orders were to kill indiscriminately. I would do that.

Sprinting the length of the floor, I was through some sort of near-empty office building with old computers and flattened cubicles.

On the other side the armored caravan crawled the street below.

I walked to the farthest broken window on the left side, they were moving in that direction and I was about in the middle.

I could always move South until they were coming straight towards me for a better angle but that would create a bottleneck and cover with the alleyways.

I had to do it here.

Somewhat hesitantly, I threw off my cloak.

Unfastened my hood.

The dark red garment fell to the floor, exposing my arms from the shoulder down, my neck, and the back of my head.

And it was cold as shit.

I would get this done fast and get out.

From the inside straps of the cloak I swiped my Dawnbreaker Mk. V, the only one of its kind, for what it could do the kick on this gun wasn't much at all.

Otherwise given my weight I'd be blown away, this was a handheld AT rifle.

My visors untinted as they sensed the scope, and then retracted.

I'd gotten them put in after Ajax kicked snow in my eyes back in Norway, almost costing me my life.

I swapped from thermal to density scanners.

As I adjusted the knob on the side a line followed it, showing a near MRI-scan of my environment.

In the middle vans there was about one guard, a driver...

And the rest had outlines of not armor but politician's wear....

I took aim dead center of the van. It would explode on impact, these shots, but fire didn't account for much in my experience.

As my finger tightened on the trigger-

My scope went dark.

Lowering it, my visors tinted and I smacked it a bit.

This was Gynezis' prized work. It didn't just glitch like that, but what...

It had to be powered, not mechanical. An EMP.

Before I could blink what equated to a bombing run on the caravan from down the street took place, so many explosions I was sure there'd be no survivors but yet they were running around down there, albeit some of them on fire...

I should have went with those thermal visor upgrades, damn it...

Counting the short bursts of gunfire, from along the street at least... 15 other assassins all assigned to this mission.

Perhaps they were coordinated.

As per usual, I was the wild card.

The sound of glass being stepped on.

I whipped around, abandoning the Dawnbreaker and ripping my uzi from the holster...

He stood there, arms folded.

Staring at me.

Thinking about how many opportunities he'd had to kill me already.

"We have to stop meeting like this..."

"I'm sure there are a few good coffee places in Thailand..."

Ajax's arms fell to his sides, and I watched the black hilt traverse to his right hand through the air.

"You see the realities of Jinn. So split they don't even want their comrades to gain for their own."

"This wasn't Jinn's doing"-

"I know, Kuro was separatist. But in the end it just goes to show Jinn can't keep their own in check. Hell, your faction can barely raise an army... Which is why Jinn must be destroyed."

"Damn it, Ajax, there's a better future!" I grabbed my cloak and put it on, he allowed me a moment. "I can't believe a lowly bounty hunter believes in a totalitarian state..."

"Money's money. And I came here to kill you. Not debate politics. But this time..."

His sword unsheathed.

"There's nothing here to save you. Not your big sister. And damn well not my own mercy."

He was right. I had to run.

Firing my grappling gun to a building across the street, I threw an explosive mine at the window and he jumped right through it, chasing me down.

///

8 years ago

Ajax

Training Grounds, Western China

"You fucked up. Again."

He crossed his arms, looking without pity at the bruised child on the ground, tears in her eyes.

Tears of failure, pain was nothing.

She stood, teeth grit against the blood pouring out between them.

Ten years old.

He'd been with Jinn since she was 5.

His sole assignment. Apart from cleaning up whistleblowers and the occasional contract killing.

His... Protégé.

Jackson watched her clutch her wounds, stagger back to the poles again, and put on foot on the first one.

The poles were made from bamboo, easy to break but thick enough for a child to climb on.

The highest pole was fifteen feet in the air, a flag atop it.

One had to get the flag by stepping from pole to pole.

Underneath it all... an array of planted wooden sticks, just sharp enough to pierce.

Even if she missed the spikes, the training pavilion had concrete stones to punish those agile alike.

The 8th attempt today.

She perched atop the first, then to the second.

Her sister had left Jinn with a trail of bodies in her wake the previous week.

Her only family.

She had nothing to live for but the brainwashing he knew she was undergoing.

And hate was a good motivator too.

She hadn't been given a name but he'd taken to calling her 'Lynx' more for degradation than anything.

Unworthy of a name. Just a species.

He knew from experience, damn well, that hate was powerful. Lynx would hate him for the abomination that she was, would hate the politician she was to protect, would hate everyone.

Ajax watched her get to the sixth pole of eight.

The sun was setting and she'd been at this most of the day.

Was this it? Was she going to make it this time?

That flag was the only thing she cared about anymore, she could finally die knowing it was in her hands, she'd broken it and set it on fire, blood on her fangs and claws, soul ripped-

"CHILD!"

Startled, she fell.

Ajax watched her fall from the highest point she had ever fallen before, almost fifteen feet onto those spikes.

They snapped underneath her, a cry of pain from the protégé.

Child.

More than anything he'd just wanted something to yell at her- to keep her from reaching the one thing she wanted.

But she wasn't a kid.

She never had been.

Ajax stared into the hate filled eyes, she could be mistaken for a feminine boy at this age and with such physicality.

To his surprise she dragged herself up and with one of the most terrifying cries of anger he'd ever heard threw herself at him.

Ajax watched in amusement as her fists and feet connected with his lower torso and legs, the only things she could reach to hit.

In responsibility of another creature.

His master would scoff at him, tell him he was never ready.

That prowess was no substitute for experience.

"KILL ME!"

For the first time he was caught off guard.

The child stared up at him, bloodied and battered and with tears flowing down her face.

He stared back, dispassionate.

"...What did you say?"

Her teeth grit, she looked away for a moment as her sobs required a breath.

"...Kill me..."

Her fists unclenched, spirit shattered.

"Look at me when you're talking to me."

For a moment she chose to defiantly stare at the ground, figuring it was the worst she could do to him.

But she begrudgingly looked up, the hell in her never fading.

"Now what did you say to me?"

Those eyes, those amber eyes.

If you looked at them differently they housed the fires of hell, every broken promise from eden, all the brutality in the world.

Some part of him even then could see the mask on her face in the coming years.

"Kill me."

Ajax's fist connected solid with her face, no strike could be described as hard because he would put his all into everything he did.

The crumpled form in front of him, just another bruise to her collection.

Her sobbing had since stopped, replaced with violent quivering and spasms.

"Never give your superior an order. And you won't die unless I fucking let you."

///

Tai

Pattaya City, Thailand

November 24th, 0700 hours

Where did we leave off...

Right.

The last thing I remember is breathing freaking fire.

That wasn't fun...

I was awake but for once didn't open my eyes or even try to remember what had transpired in the past 24 hours.

It was all I could do to groan.

And a soft alarm, footsteps, and shouts responded.

For the first time in nearly two months I thought I had school.

And then simulations.

And then I remembered Isaac was leader now, so we'd probably be doing stuff later-

Oh, we were doing something off today weren't we? Not at base for the present.

Ah.

I'd been shot. Officially.

...

Woah.

I opened my eyes and sat up, taking in what I could.

An infirmary, to my knowledge.

Small, two beds.

A curtain separating us but I could tell from the outline of legs under a blanket I wasn't alone.

Window on my side of the room, rays of the morning peeking up.

Looking down the blankets were just to my stomach, my shirt black with a sort of plastic feel and a strange hexagonal grid pattern.

...

Fuck, I'd actually been shot, hadn't I?

"Tai? You alright?"

I looked back towards the tower of a wolf walking in the door, ducking as he did.

"Y-Yes, Leftenant Marshall... I'm just a bit shaky."

The wolf wasn't wearing his shades and his eyes were so piercing I had to look away.

"Roland? You holding up?"

A groan from the other side of the room.

It took me a moment to figure out who it was.

I'd only ever heard people call him Roland to piss him off for jokes and whatnot.

Marshall went behind the curtain to look at Riddick first.

"...It's not serious, you don't have to go home."

"...F-Fuck yeah..."

"But you're still going back to Norway."

My handler walked back over to me.

"As for you, Cadet..."

His hand brushed the collar of my shirt.

Thinking for a moment, he grabbed a tool from the table next to me.

Pointing at the left side of my chest, I saw the hexagon pattern in my shirt disappear, and white fur replace it.

"I want you to take a look at this. And keep your voice down."

I gave a nod, staring at it.

Discoloration just above my heart.

It was...

Gray. Patchy.

"You earned a scar yesterday. Congratulations."

"I... All I really did was just step in front of"-

"If you ever do that again I'm kicking you off this team and sending you to DeSanta, she'll assign you to the freelance Janus group. Got me?"

I stared at him, openmouthed.

"Uh... Sure."

Marshall reached into his pocket and pulled out his shades.

Looking out the window, they hovered above his brow for a moment.

"The incendiary pierced your heart, Tai. Trajectory meant it was for Reyna's. Hell, you might have done us a big favor, I'm sure Ramses would be pissed... But that's not the point."

The shades finally came on, he turned those spotlights back onto me now that I could bare them.

"You took a bullet. It pierced your heart. We couldn't find an exit wound. An incendiary besides. No normal soldier should have survived that, GSS or otherwise, and certainly not a Janus afflict."

Marshall pulled a manila envelope from the folds of his coat.

"You're not supposed to have this, but I'm giving it to you. Everything we know about your case. Prior knowledge. Your papers. Everything you need is here."

"...Thanks?"

He put the tool back to my wound and closed up the shirt.

Another glance out the window.

"The rest of G201 is still fighting... But the wounded were taken South. Just you and Riddick are going home so far, but..."

"What is it, sir?"

He hesitated.

"I put a note in that dossier but... We couldn't find anything wrong with you. We couldn't even find the bullet's explosive shrapnel. You're not scorched, the only evidence is that scar... You react differently with fire. Aversion. Even then, the shrapnel should have killed you but like I said, it's not there."

"W-What?"

He leaned in to my ear.

"But that's for you to explore. And not for me to know."

Leaving the room, it was almost as if he knew I had a whole.... dimension inside my head to test things.

One that I'd been neglecting.

"Oh- and, Tai?"

I looked back up.

"We couldn't find the owner of that jacket right there, most likely he's dead. Kyle had it pressed to your wound, so... I suppose you can keep it."

He walked out and I sat up further, a jacket was neatly folded on a table beside me. It certainly looked warm, I'd seen Rochelle wearing one before. Aviator jacket, I think.

It was someone else's... If it was Kyle's it wouldn't be so small.

I didn't think it was military protocol to just give away something like that but what else were they going to do with it?

///

"Tai! We brought the one you asked for. Found him hiding behind the magnatrain station."

I rubbed my eyes, giving no attention to what was just said but looking up.

Wha-

Where was I...?

This was some kind of brick... courtyard, no, there was no roof but I was surrounded by buildings.

The only light was fires, it burned into the night, and there were tons of people here. Most of them wore black or gray.

My colors.

...

What?

I was sitting down in a... Really fancy chair, actually.

A few gunshots outside, I jerked my head over to them.

What the hell...

In the back of my mind I already knew what this was, further back I knew it wasn't real, but I never listened to the back of my mind.

Two hands, slender and tan furred, were on my shoulders and I looked up and over to see an overly attractive woman. In my experience a prostitute.

In my experience.

Fuck, was I in...

The back of my mind was screaming at me but as two burly men threw down a certain canine in front of me, it went silent in commensurate shock.

"O-Omar?"

I hadn't seen his face in two months but it felt like years.

This entire life, was it even real? Surely all I'd ever known was Norway, Vervous, the outside...

I denied it to myself but there was the one-eyed mutt, his face twisted in fear and agony.

"Tai... I swear I won't steal from you again, ever... I-I'll pay my dues but I'm low on work right now, double next time, right? Right?"

After I didn't speak for a good five seconds, he gave another 'right?' for good measure.

I really didn't give a damn, I sent them out to kill him not to bring him here. Unless it was his severed head, I'd mount it on the pikes myself.

It was as if my mind was an overlay of two, one threatening to fully take over and keep me here.

I looked for familiarity, after all we were one and the same Tai...

No. No, we were nothing alike.

"Whaddaya think, boss? We gonna cut this one's head off?"

One of the men that carried him in folded his arms, the other holding a rusty and bloodstained knife to Omar's neck. His arms were tattooed to shit, showing almost none of his fur anymore.

A lot of skulls on it, a Jinn eye somewhere...

I silently got up, the talking died within a split second and the entire courtyard went silent.

Absently looking back to my feet I was in control of my eyes now, my body moving alone.

In the other's control.

My eyes tracked the steps I took. My feet were bare apart from bandages, ripped jeans that I'd worn so many times before in Gibraltar, this time with stitched in patterns, that skull, a Jinn eye...

To confirm my location, yeah, if it wasn't obvious before this was... But a Jinn eye?

This wasn't a dream, this was brought on by my disease... Another weird yet hyperrealistic vision.

It was like Ariya said... An alternate timeline?

And she said to not look into them at all costs. I remembered that much.

I knelt down in front of Omar, his hands bound behind him.

"Untie him."

Our eyes- well, the one he had, met and I watched relief cross his face.

Omar, no matter how much of a fucking flea he was to me, could get things done.

He was a nobody. A capable nobody, there were uses for them. Infiltrate rival gangs. Smooth talk. Though I'd never trust him with my life I'd trust him with my enemy's.

What? Omar's the leader of a small-time, he beat me up a few times a-and I could have died that day in the alley...

Confusion pulsed throughout my head, two waveforms clashed over one another.

Now that I was given the moment to think, maybe I would s-

Save

Save

Save?

Kill.

I would kill Omar.

I would rip his guts out and make him look at them with his one good eye before I gouged that out too, I would take his head off and put it on my fucking-

"STOP! AAAAGH!"

There was a knife in my hand and it was screaming for me to feed it.

No, feed it more.

I was vigorously stabbing Omar, as soon as he'd stood I took him to the ground and with one hand around his throat and swatting his hands away, I was ripping into his chest.

That sound, the wet splashes that got all over me, I lived for this shade of red and the taste of it...

His screams began to turn into whimpers and moans but my quick, vicious plunges into his fur and flesh didn't get softer.

Soon, I was stabbing a corpse with such intensity I couldn't myself believe it.

But they, in the courtyard, watched me with horror, the grin in my face telling them who I really was when you peeled back all those fake layers, they'd burn and char away sometime after all...

I was scaring these people.

These people from Gibraltar.

///

Vervous, Norway

2300 hours

"Ow! What the hell, Tai?"

Tai.

Y-Yes, I was Tai. That was my name.

I opened my eyes again and I was in...

Oh fuck, I was losing it again.

Hold on, hold on just a minute longer... Don't send me back there, what do I tell those people who I just... I...

"Tai, you're drawing blood. The fuck, man?"

I pried my hand off of Riddick's arm, realizing he wasn't kidding, his fur was stained dark red under my fingertips.

Sitting back up, I looked around.

Something familiar. And not hellish this time...

A limo. Not a van, not an armored vehicle or a magnatrain, but a limo just like the one Marshall picked me up in on my first day.

Out the window, a familiar forest I'd passed just a few times but it felt so close to home, so inviting, the snow blanketing the trees like the mother I'd never had.

I closed my eyes, breathed.

"Tai. Are you ok?"

Riddick.

I didn't open my eyes, I couldn't right now. I needed my time. I'd just murdered someone not of that Tai's accord but my own.

"Talk to me, come on..."

Two hands on either shoulder, I felt someone's close breathing on my face. Like a gunslinger the digits on the hands waved, tingling on my arms.

I realized I was quivering, my head jerking.

My ears were ringing but a few sounds were more prominent amongst the rest.

I could hear Vervous' city noise, however far in we were to the forest.

Wheels and the soft engine of the limo.

More than anything, Riddick's breathing.

Steady. Calm. Trained... It was the only constant, consistent sound out of them all. I paid attention to it and the ringing stopped, everything stopped but.

His breathing became extremely loud, and as I focused in on him I heard the blink of his eyes, the slight AC breeze ruffling his fur, his shirt's stretching with every breath in...

And his heartbeat.

I opened my eyes to see his, storm gray.

I'd never paid attention to his eyes no matter how deep he struck me as a person.

I really didn't care to, I didn't know why.

I didn't.

I didn't.

Why, why do I keep saying that, why is it ramming into my skull like spikes to a rail, I was going to scream if-

"Tai."

Everything stopped, my ears returning to normal. I opened my mouth to answer to what I'd just done but couldn't- I didn't know what it was in the first place.

I looked back into his eyes, maybe just to let him know I was still in it.

It wasn't good enough for him but I didn't know what to do. Evidently staring a bit longer was, because he went back to clutching his bleeding arm.

My fingers hurt, I'd practically jammed them through his coarse hyena fur and then the skin...

We didn't speak for a good five minutes.

"I'm sorry."

It was from my mouth. It was becoming a familiar feeling, words escaping without my full consent.

"For what?"

"Your arm..."

"That's... That's not important, Tai. What the hell happened to you?"

I put my face in my hands and then quickly brought them to my temples to assure him I wasn't crying or anything.

"It's just a bad dream. Nothing more."

He sighed.

"Jesus, man, I honestly think you need to go home after what"-

He stopped himself, realizing that wasn't an option to me.

"...You ever got any... psychological work done?"

I scratched the back of my neck. No, the only real therapy I'd ever had was the fuckton of pills Marshall gave me on the regular.

And my one-a-day from that strange girl... But now that I'd been to Thailand maybe I understood her more.

And damn it, those pills were back in Thailand too...

But my foot nudged my duffle bag and I breathed again.

"Like, therapy? If you asked Marshall he'd get you it real quick. I had a lot of problems too, and it's not good when you can't get someone to help. I was stuck on a ship for the greater part of a year, here your insurance and all covers it."

"...Insurance?"

He opened his mouth to speak but I held up a hand to silence him.

"I appreciate it, I really do, but... Things are changing for me. I'm not sure what's going to happen but..."

But I'm 19.

I'm supposed to die when I'm 20.

I got no clue when my birthday is so at any moment I could just go to sleep and not-

As if he could sense my conflict Riddick grabbed my hand and squeezed it.

It was very unexpected, especially from him. In fact, everything was. It was like he'd always try his hardest to hide it but he actually did care.

But was he hiding it at all? Maybe he was genuine, maybe...

Maybe I need to stop doing this. Stop overanalyzing and just appreciate people.

"If you don't want to speak to a therapist I-I'm here."

Riddick had never gone to anything professional, I realized. What kept him sane in ANZU?

And what the hell happened to him in the first place?

"Well... Thanks."

I felt the car stop and Riddick's side door was opened in short manner.

He put his jacket back on and I did mine, not remembering taking it off in the first. I'd have to ask him about... Well, fuck, I didn't even remember leaving the hospital bed.

The hyena kept uncharacteristically close on our way to the door, fumbling and almost dropping the keys unlocking it.

I couldn't see him acting so strangely at my expense but at the end of the day... I was still the one he didn't have a gripe with.

I think.

I'd certainly grown attached to people in Gibraltar, the ones that didn't try and kill me. But they died quickly.

I didn't shut myself off like Reyna.

Maybe that was our common ground, me and Riddick. We looked for someone familiar.

But he started building a wall around us.

"I'd say get some sleep, but... You were out on the train and sleepwalked to the limo, practically."

"You going to bed then?"

"I can stay up if you want me to."

I shook my head. "I'll... Find something to do."

I watched him walk upstairs, standing in the doorway awkwardly. Pulling my jacket tighter around myself, maybe I should try to go to sleep.

I'd never had problems before, sometimes it took me under a minute between hitting the pillow. And whenever I suggested it to myself I was always up for it but...

I didn't want to go through something weird again.

///

Reyna

Settlement 14, Thailand

November 25th, 0100 hours

Another tremor shook her, as she opened her eyes to the dim light she realized sleep had befell her.

Rubbing the emerald green portals, she brushed a stray braid out of her face, tying it back with all the rest.

Looking around the concrete bunker, Rochelle, Alvin, and the few others stationed with them were asleep.

Except for-

The scratch of blade on whetstone, one of the sounds etched into her mind permanently but now she was hearing it again.

Sitting on a crate of munitions, sharpening the blade, Kyle's upper face was completely shadowed, only his muzzle untouched by the darkness.

Reyna felt his gaze shift. The break of concentration only slightly on his knife, irregularity in breathing... And that chill she got.

For a moment they clashed, ice and the ocean, storm and fire, mountain and time.

"Did I wake you up? My apologies."

Reyna shook her head. "Tremors."

They sat in silence for another long while.

It had almost been forgotten amidst the detour to Thailand, everything that had happened.

Turning around and seeing him standing there in shock, returning fire because it was all she was capable of...

Killing.

"Do you trust him?"

Kyle's blade stopped, and he set it gently down into the bag beside him, his stone tossed between either hand. At the dim light's angle she still couldn't see his face.

"I have seen another one with snow fur, gold eyes... General"-

"Orucov?"

For a moment, Kyle's muzzle opened to bewilderment. Then frowned, perhaps more so than before.

Reyna watched his hand drift up to his wolf ear, brush against a circular nick she hadn't paid much attention to before.

"My uncle met with him once."

Raised eyebrows from the wolf.

"A peace talk, mind you. It went better than..." Reyna waved a hand to the roof of the bunker and let it fall back to her lap.

"But I wasn't talking about the cat... I meant Isaac."

"No." Kyle said it immediately, no hesitation whatsoever. The whetstone was tossed for the last time and settled in perhaps a more solid grip than it.

"I saw you and Riddick scheming. And I can crack his dossier."

Kyle raised an eyebrow.

"Then by all means... Though I expected you would already have top access, Trojan?"

A slow smirk formed on her face.

"As Trojan, I have less. Where it counts, at least. You had to have seen a code indicator in the briefcase, a series of numbers, some sort of"-

"539152."

She sat in shock, opening and closing her muzzle. One hand slowly found its way to the back of her neck and held position.

"I assume the dossier is back home?"

"I had nowhere to hide it from Rochelle, it should be in my bathroom."

"Likely some sort of cleaning people came in while we were gone."

"Fuck... Still a chance they didn't, though."

Reyna massaged her temple, the off hand's thumb and forefinger grinding in habit.

"Riddick and Tai got sent home."

"If we can get word to them..."

Both of their gazes settled on the bunker's terminal at the same time, then remembered it was locked.

A sigh from both of them.

They met gazes again, simultaneously.

"I'm just surprised you remember the code indicator."

Kyle gave a shrug. Perhaps it was just her eyes adjusting but she could see the color of his eyes now against his dark gray fur, the lighter parts just peeking out of his collar.

"I have a memory like a squid."

"...What?"

A frown.

"...An elephant, you meant?"

"Da. Not my first language."

"How do you confuse a"-

Another tremor, this time accompanied with an alarm.

As soldiers began to wake around them, Reyna looked for Kyle's eyes to find the crate vacated.

Grimacing and picking up her rifle, hesitantly she set it back down and settled on a cylindrical black object.

She was going to give them hell for Tai, whatever poor state he was in would be avenged...

///

Tai

November 25th, 2000 hours

"Well, I thought it was a very good story."

"That's the first movie you've ever seen, Tai, of course you would. But dear god if you actually thought Admiral Va'sai was going to die at the end you're an idiot..."

"...I thought he died at the beginning of the film."

Riddick raised his eyebrows, head tilting sarcastically.

"Va'sai was the fox dude."

"Oh, I thought he was the tiger."

"That was a fuckin' woman, Tai."

I shrugged.

"But yeah, it was a pretty good movie."

I yawned as we pulled back up the drive and in front of the house.

Somewhat reluctantly I put the aviator jacket back on. I'd discovered a red blotch on the sleeve I hoped was mine but after vigorous washing it was gone.

By vigorous washing I meant I'd put it with some soap in the sink and went at it. I still had no clue how to use the washing machine.

I hoped things were going well in Thailand.

I'd done my part but... Honestly, I felt I'd played some sort of cheap move. I'd done it just to get out of combat, not to save Reyna but to go home.

Then again, I went into that thinking it was my funeral.

And all I got was a new scar.

I couldn't say I had many scars and those I did have were from scrapes and falls, at one point a bullet had ricocheted off a wall and hit me in the shoulder, busting it open but not doing anything serious.

Someone hit me with a brick, the edge clipped my ear pretty badly not to mention my actual head.

Oddly enough the only really visible scar I had was from Omar's knife.

Omar...

I shivered, not from the cold.

As Riddick opened the door I rushed inside and I only noticed the wind had been howling when he closed it, absence and warmth clashing with my cold.

"You holding up? Look a little cold."

I was, for whatever reason, mesmerized as Riddick grabbed a blanket and draped it over my shoulders, walking into the kitchen.

"I didn't think it would last 3 hours, I'll make dinner."

Wrapping the blanket around myself, I sat back down on the couch.

Damn, it didn't get warmer down here...

///

Kyle

"Damn it! Stay with me!"

As a fiery blast erupted overhead, Kyle shook the soldier to no avail.

The bullet embedded in his chest shook free and rolled down his vest, then rang out upon hitting the ground.

But Kyle could barely hear himself shout, the mortars were all around.

"Kyle! We need you at the front!"

His bracer's volume was amped, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to hear it.

Giving a growl and hefting his rifle, he took the soldier's ammo belt off and stripped the mags. Not like he'd be needing it anymore.

As soon as he broke free from the alleyway a bullet flew by his head, the graft in his ear almost added to. He dove behind a crate, hoping something bulletproof was in it...

As he heard bullets on wood, a sigh of relief escaped him.

Just as he peeked out of the alley He'd seen several glowing red eyes behind masks, thermal and fear tactic alike.

Not that it meant much for lights in a firey, explosive field but...

He was Wolfpack after all.

Closing his eyes, Kyle looked for the purple blotches that were smallest, two symmetrical dots amongst the explosions burning into his vision.

In fact, six pairs.

Looking at the heights of them, they were starting to fade and as an explosion lit up his vision, he flinched.

Standing up and turning around in one motion he aimed to their overlaid positions and began to hose down two, then fire as he set himself back into cover.

As red hot needles erupted in his back, Kyle hissed and kicked against the crate.

The SMG that lit him up while he was carrying Tai had done a number on him. Any smaller calibers hitting his trench coat wouldn't break the carbon fiber under the leather, but he'd gotten sprayed.

Kyle insisted on staying and fighting and so did Marshall, as much as they wanted to send him to Pattaya City. After all, grievous injuries meant he would be decommissioned.

And sent back to Russia, where now, he had no home.

Another explosion.

A flash of green lit his vision and in curiosity he looked from behind his crate and down the alley's scope, on the street green fire and dead Jinn.

Watching in awe, the fire started chasing a Jinn soldier, moving towards him until it crackled out.

Instantly he knew who to look for, Reyna was standing in the middle of the alley with a Trojan bow drawn and firing, the kinetic gloves bringing capsules to her hand and then the haptic string firing them.

As the ground cracked beside her, Kyle knew she was a target. A prime target.

And since everyone else was still in cover...

The only target.

Out of something more than instinct he dashed out and then past Reyna, guns blazing and whoever he saw was dropped with less his bullets and more his self-preservation.

But death was just a word to him.

Kyle threw himself down behind the wedge of a burning car and a pile of debris, firing towards his uncovered angle and dropping the two Jinn that were just running down the street.

Another shape, this one he...

Recognized.

Instead of the two eyes, a single red slit across the face was the only betrayal of location.

After Jinn cut the power to the city only fires made with war lit the night.

He watched the slit grow closer, the explosions and gunfire around him became null.

Kyle wanted to run up there...

And rip its damn head off.

Jinn Cyclops.

As he aimed for the slit a click emanated from his gun, somehow so much louder than anything else around him.

The ammo belt he'd slung over his neck in the chaos was laying by the crate.

As for his handguns...

They would do nothing against this beast.

He had nothing else, not even his throwing knives this time.

20 meters away.

Perhaps the biggest explosion thus far blinded him as a mortar down the street hit an array of propane tanks, but the Cyclops unit was unfazed.

Kyle could now see the slender and tall form, two blades it carried, callously strolling through hell to finish what had been started.

"That's the last Jinn! Push up!"

Someone walked up to Kyle and helped him up, the wolf's eyes frozen.

And the Cyclops walked on.

As the soldier noticed the figure, he aimed his gun.

"CONTACT, 9!"

Everyone turned, and stood still.

The soldier fired his rifle in bursts, hitting every shot.

This, this was what scared Kyle.

Not death, but this.

Fueled by the ethereality of something that shouldn't exist, such an ungodly creature, the unit walked on.

As a hissing sound broke through the gunfire Kyle closed his eyes.

Something wet spattered across his face.

Not looking to see the beheaded soldier lying beside him, twitching, Kyle gritted his teeth and pulled a collapsible staff from his back.

About half of the group, experienced regulars who had been stationed in Thailand before ducked down.

Kyle mantled over the debris and rolled down beside Reyna, back pressed to it.

The transfers were killed promptly, firing on the seemingly invincible figure.

Reyna touched her thigh and for a moment couldn't find any Trojan arrows.

As her hand made contact, she gave a distressed look to Kyle.

One

She mouthed it as the regulars began to fall back from the debris, clanking footsteps growing ever closer...

Reyna made a start but Kyle pulled her back down and they flattened against the pile of rock and rebar, the jackal trusting that the wolf knew what he was doing, otherwise she would haunt him for as long as he lived...

Just as she shut her eyes in suspense a screech echoed out and Kyle watched as the Cyclops dived into the mass of regulars, ripping them to shreds.

Reyna's bow expanded and she brought a metal capsule up to the vertex and brought it back, the phantom wispy green string formed and nocked it.

She said something in Egyptian, Kyle interpreted it as 'go to hell'

Not 15 feet in front of them a fiery explosion erupted, Kyle shielding them with his trench coat to keep most of the blast from singing them.

Two seconds after the initial blast they scrambled up the debris pile and ran a good 10 meters before looking back, Kyle still holding his staff in an iron grip.

"Would that be enough to kill him?"

Reyna looked to Kyle for an answer but he didn't respond.

The two watched in horror, backing away quickly, as a red slit peered over the mound against the firestorm just behind it.

As it slowly advanced Reyna began to split off from Kyle and picked up a tire iron, the wolf tacitly moving the opposite.

Someone would at least make it out here.

Reyna froze up once she made it to an alleyway, the slow trudging of the cyclops seemingly faster.

As Kyle moved into his own and sank to the back, he realized this was a dead end... And the walls were barren for climbing.

As the red slit stopped and turned towards him...

He ripped his handgun from the holster, it was something...

A loud clang and the Cyclops lurched forward for a bit, sparks from the back of the head.

Whipping around, he ran towards Reyna, her tire iron laying where it had been thrown.

His heart threatening to punch a hole in his chest, Kyle sprinted after it.

///

Tai

2030 hours

My subtle clinks of a fork on a plate, his scrapes and divots.

I'd never really ever noticed just how fucking annoying smacking can be. Whenever we all ate together Rochelle was sitting furthest from me so I never heard her, as many complaints as she got.

Riddick did talk occasionally with his mouth full but you wouldn't catch his smacking unless you were looking for it.

When you're trying to ignore something all the willpower in your body goes to paying full attention to it.

And I have super-hearing apparently.

Everyone else ate really politely. I'd expect Kyle to be a bit of a savage after I'd done a bit of database research on mercs but he was good enough.

I don't think I ever saw Reyna put food in her mouth, it was like she was trying to hide it.

Wow, I can really go on about things...

"So, how'd you turn gay anyways?"

I always wolfed everything down so I was just looking for conversation.

...

It took me a moment to realize I was navigating a minefield, especially now that I'd stepped in rather than just gone around it.

"I dated a girl and didn't like it."

"...That was it?"

He shrugged, a mouthful of food.

"What can I say, she was a bitch. Just think about it, right," he put his fork down to talk with his hands.

"You have this absolute minefield of a sex, the polar opposite, you can't understand them, you can't make them happy, they do nothing for you. It's one way."

Moving his hands to the other side of the table, he continued.

"And then, you have your mates. The guys you always hung out with after school, you played football with, went fishing with, your best friends."

"Well by that logic, most guys would be gay."

"Should." He grinned, a bit of lettuce in his teeth. "But they're exceedingly difficult to find."

My eyes fled back down to my plate, and I stabbed at it idly with my fork.

"Wouldn't it be awkward though... Going from best friends to... That?"

"My best friend was gay before I was, he was probably the biggest reason I turned. He came out a year before me, when he was 15. It made me see him in a new light, I guess."

I carried my plate over to the sink and began washing it by hand. I could have just set it in the washer but I needed to hide behind something should the conversation go...

Ugh, I was so awkward...

"Did you two ever date, then?"

"Yeah, he was the longest relationship I had. Two months."

My eyebrows raised but I didn't turn to look at him.

"I know, it sounds bad. But he was a backstabbing sunovabitch. If I had a chance to I'd gun him down anywhere."

"Jeez, what did he do?"

The plate was going to chip if I washed it anymore, so I turned and leaned against the counter.

Just as I did, Riddick started hand-washing his plate.

Usually Alvin did dishes voluntarily, he was just all around a nice guy, but I figured from what I heard about Riddick's upbringing he was a clothesline type of family.

...

And I found my clothes in the trash.

"He cheated on me. And then he humiliated me. When I needed someone the most... I never recovered."

He finished quickly, probably more experienced.

Turning to face me, we were at the counter's corners and he leaned against the other side.

"I mean, look at me. I'm 18 and I smoke, drink, I haven't shaken my pills. I can name 20 people who want me dead. And more that I want dead."

He shrugged.

My eyes were fixated on him and his on the floor, reverse from earlier.

The kitchen's light got dim on the edges and one of the counter's lights was directly behind him, shadowing but not fully silhouetting his body.

For the first time I saw a strange pink vein peek out of his collar, splitting into 3 angry tips.

"Tai, do something for me, will you?"

"Anything."

He looked back up at me, he looked so strained and stressed, so...

Terribly angry. Too angry to do anything about it, so much that it stole away his commitment.

This was what he looked like under all those strange layers.

"Don't ever fucking trust anyone."

"...Not even you?"

"Especially not me."

Such a strange thing to say, even if he'd just explained to me that trust ruined him.

I couldn't say the exact moment our eyes met, it had probably been a few moments before and I hadn't noticed.

His was one of the few I wasn't attracted to, just glanced over as I would a spot on his fur.

But there was a storm in them, a dull gray like iron. Locked behind a wall, such fury.

He leaned towards me.

I thought he was just standing back straight to walk away but he kept going, slowly and cautiously.

I moved out of the way before he bumped into me.

For a moment Riddick didn't react, just kept staring into my eyes for the longest time.

We stared, we didn't say anything.

There was meaning behind that movement, I just didn't know it yet.

As he did it again I did the same and he went back.

"It's getting a tad late, I'll head to sleep."

"A-Aye..." He stuttered this time. "I will too."

It was 8:30, and my nose just picked up on the strong alcoholic smell coming from his water bottle.

///

K that's the chapter appreciate it bye

Nyways the '2nd wall break' element (the one that takes place in the future) im trying not to shoehorn it but when I lost the prologue the first time around I decided to not do it at all.

And then I kinda realized how much it plays into the plot later so I kinda had to

I hope 2018 is better than 2017.

Honestly im not going into years expecting them to be good we only seem to notice the bad times anyways

If you can get some good out of it then do it