FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

A shape drifted into view, shaped like a brick with two squat, forward-swept wings, adorned all over with antennae, soft lights blinking on the tips. A brighter light separated from the bottom and began to drift toward her, gliding silently, before veering off to the right. The hallway rocked beneath her feet, sending Sasha tumbling into the blue curtain again. Dekhal and Candice were standing up, unsteadily. One of them said something.

"What?"

"I said we're under attack! " Candice's voice was so soft Sasha could barely hear it over the ringing in her ears, but the doe looked like she was yelling. Two more ships (ships?) had drifted into view. All three were being chased by a trail of luminescent gas. She watched as two more lights detached from their bellies.

"Have you ever seen anything like that?" Sasha started to shake her head no, but then she wondered. Had she? Dekhal watched the silent ballet with her; the ships seemed to slide around weightlessly, tilting one way, then the other, as they glided through space. The hall rocked beneath their feet again.

Sasha heard a muffled thump, followed by another, then another; three trails of light and gas slid out from somewhere to her right, two chasing the first shape, the last after one of the newcomers. The light found the newcomer first, meeting the back of the shape before blooming into a bright orange/red flower, speckled with black bits of ship. The cloud of flame expanded outward, quickly guttering out in the vacuum, as the front half of the ship tumbled end over end away from the glory.

The first ship slid up and out of view; Sasha leaned forward just in time to see it crack into bits as first one, then the other torpedo (torpedo?) struck home. The light illuminated what looked to be a wing off to her left, large, sloping down and back; unlike the shapes out there, it had no lights.

The light in the hall around the hole changed from red back to blue; the stars, shapes, and ship remains disappeared, replaced for just an instant by utter blackness before the shimmering blue curtain turned opaque. Sensing the moment of calm, Sasha took the time to check herself for injuries; a few minor bumps and bruises, some aching, but nothing serious. Dekhal and Candice likewise checked out fine.

Sasha turned to Candice. "Attack? Why were we being attacked?"

"They were trying to rescue the Calate." Candice had been shocked completely out of the trance she'd been in, but at least the damnable ringing in Sasha's ears was beginning to fade.

Dekhal rubbed his still-tender jaw. "Calate? That word seems familiar."

"I saw a newsreel about it. The enemy's leader, like an emperor but with less power. The Calate is here?"

Candice nodded. "We'd stopped to refuel--that's why the light was red. They caught up to us before we finished. It was just a small patrol, no real threat to a vessel this size; they stumbled on us by accident." Candice looked at the hole in the wall. "They must have a lot of ships out hunting to have found us." There was a slight tremor; the light turned back to white and Candice let out a sigh of relief. "We're underway again."

"So... the facility is a ship? I don't remember seeing anything like that." Sasha rubbed her ears--the ringing in them was finally dropping to a tolerable level.

"The elevators go to the other parts of the ship, with the right access codes; the facility itself only makes up around a third, the rest is more or less a standard ship of the line, albeit stealthy. There's a captain--she records the reinforcements--a crew, a bridge, and so on. We can defend ourselves, but if we have to, something has gone wrong." Candice put her hands on her hips, looking up at the two felines. "Speaking of something going wrong, either of you care to tell me why I'm naked in the middle of a hallway with no memory of how I got here? Or why you're still together when you know you shouldn't be?"

Sasha ignored the doe's question and flicked her ears to the sides, running her hand over the curtain of light. It felt smooth, unyielding; an unsettling tingling spread through her hand as she touched it. "This is incredible. I didn't know this was possible, but now that I see it I can almost remember it..."

Dekhal looked critically at Candice, like he was seeing her for the first time. "A crew, you said? Do they know about us?"

Candice shook her head. "They don't know anything at all. Most of the crew are little more than machines. They have no will of their own. The state didn't want any of you getting out and causing trouble, so they packed the ship with people you couldn't control."

Sasha slowly pulled her hand away from the 'wall'. "Shouldn't we have this conversation somewhere else? I'd think they'd send someone to repair this hole."

Candice nodded and headed off the direction they'd came from, with Sasha and Dekhal trailing behind. "True, but you avoided my question earlier. What am I doing here?" Sasha's ears went flat, but slowly stood. The damn things were taking the doe's side.

"I don't know. About you. You just showed up in my room like that, you said I was in danger. We think it was something done to you before my last wipe." Candice nodded, seeming to accept that. "And I'm with Dekhal because..."

"Because we care about each other." Dekhal laid his hand on Sasha's shoulder, rubbing it gently. "It's from some trance or another, from this wipe or the last, we don't know. We think it may have happened on its own, both of us suggesting things to each other over time." He shrugged.

"We know it's not real, but that doesn't seem so bad when it's all you have. They're going to re-wipe us no matter what we do. Why not use the time we have?" Sasha smiled wanly and Candice avoided meeting her eyes. "They'll catch us sooner or later. Where can we go? Out there?" The lynx waved at the walls around her, sensing for the first time the vastness that lay just outside. "We just want to be left alone for a little while."

"I... I have to take you back, you know." The doe was quiet, like she hoped Sasha wouldn't hear. "You shouldn't be out here like this." Because she was looking down, Candice didn't see Dekhal's meaningful glance at an unoccupied conference room just ahead of the party. "I don't have a choice." The doe looked at Sasha just in time for the lion to wrap an arm around her mouth and another around her middle, lifting her bodily off the ground and carting her into the room. Sasha snuck in behind him and closed the door.

"Mmph! MMMPH!" Candice squirmed in Dekhal's grasp, the doe's back to his chest. Sasha locked the door as soon as she was inside, then knelt in front of the still-nude doe and gave her pussy a long, slow lick. "Mmmphh! Mmphhmph! Mhmmuuuuhhhnnn..." Dekhal let go of Candice's mouth, focusing on holding her still despite her kicking and squirming. "Ahh... Let me go! We don't have time for--oooohhh--this!" The doe could be as loud as she wanted, it made no matter: conference rooms were soundproofed. Dekhal sat down, spreading the doe's legs farther apart with his own. Sasha kept up the contact, her tongue made little slurping sounds as she cleaned Candi's sex. "What are you doing?"

A little string of saliva connected her mouth to Candice's muff when Sasha pulled back to answer. "I'm getting you ready." Her hands undid Dekhal's belt and pants, freeing his swiftly-hardening member, before she planted a strong, wet kiss directly on the doe's clit, swirling her rough tongue around the little nub.

"Ahh! Ahhaaahh!" Candice stiffened, stretched out in Dekhal's arms, and it was all the opening the cats needed. With the lion's help, Sasha lifted the doe up and positioned her over Dekhal, little dribbles of cat saliva and doe juices dripping down onto the lion's prick. Slowly, they lowered their superior officer down onto the lion's obviously ready cock; the rapturous moan Candi let out made Sasha's cunny water. No way was she leaving this room without at least some relief.

Sasha reluctantly pulled away to make room for the tool, enjoying the close-up view of the doe's snatch stretching wide to accommodate Dekhal. Candice regained her presence of mind soon enough, but her struggles only helped the cats. Sasha licked her lips, imagining the sweet torment the bumps on Dekhal's manhood were giving the doe, the way the cock rubbed the walls of Candice's cunny as she squeezed it, not wanting to help but unable to fight her body's well-trained responses. It was getting very hard for the lynx to stand idly by. She was hungry, and since Candi's pussy was occupied...

Sasha stood up and leaned forward, taking one of the doe's nipples in her mouth and started to suckle it; she sent a hand to play with the other, running her fingers through the soft fur covering the mound, occasionally tweaking the nipple with her claws. Candice gasped at the attention, redoubling her efforts to get free before Sasha's hands could pull her too far down. "Please don't do--haahhhh--do this, don't--unnhhhh--put me under, ahh, have to, have to get you back to..."

"Shh." Dekhal punctuated his commanding rumble by thrusting into the doe he was holding captive. "Like you said, you don't have a choice. The state's making you take us back, we're taking you here. Who do you trust more? I'm inside you and you like it, and nothing you say can change that. True?" He didn't wait for a reply. "So calm down, wait until you're free, for now I'm inside you and you might as well relax and enjoy it. You're completely surrounded by friends and you can't do anything but enjoy it, so calm down."

Dekhal was still purring; the rumbling of his speech vibrated Candice's spine, sending shivers into her brain. No tools, no drugs, just lots of sexual attention appealing to her submissive streak, and Candice was starting to fade. Her struggles came slower and slower. She'd been under enough times that sexual things could be hypnotic--they all had--but more than Dekhal or Sasha, on some deep level, Candice really needed to be controlled. The cats were happy to oblige.

Sasha gave Candice's tit a last kiss before she set her fingers to work on the nipples, rubbing them gently in concentric, regular circles. The doe's fur was almost an instruction manual--brown most places, with white running down her front and on the inside of her legs, color-coded for where to touch.

"That's right, Candice, I know what you want, I know just how to play you, and Dekhal has you right where he wants you, wrapped around him and loving it. You can't fight it. Every time you think about how good it feels to be filled, how good it feels to have my fingers on your nipples, how good it feels to be surrounded and controlled, you go a little farther under, become ours a little more."

Candice moaned, long and low in her throat, grinding her hips against Dekhal, knowing she desperately wanted something but no longer sure what it was. "Please... please let..."

"Let you what? Let you go? Do you want us to stop?" Candice lolled her head; Sasha kept her fingers moving. The fur on Candi's ample bosom was already matted from all the attention, but the furry mounds still heaved into Sasha's face, pert nipples aching for more.

Dekhal rumbled pleasantly in between nibbling on the doe's neck. "I know you don't really want us to stop, not while I'm inside you, Candice. It feels toooo goooood." The last was more a purr than a word, and Sasha could have sworn Candice tried to purr with him. "Don't you want to come with us, Candice?" The lion's hips kept moving, inexorably thrusting, in and out, in and out. Each time he pushed in, Candi's head bounced up and her eyes closed. Each time he pulled out, she opened her eyes a little less.

"Yes," Sasha purred, leaning forward to kiss her friend deeply before continuing. "Come with us. You want to, don't you?" The lynx's hands paused for a moment, then redoubled their attack, making Candice gasp. "Say it."

"Please... please let me commmmmme!"

"You know what that means, don't you?" Dekhal peppered Candice's neck with kisses, his hands stroking her belly now that they weren't needed to pin her down.

Sasha continued for him. "To come with us, you have to be tranced for us. So if you come with us, you'll be deeply hypnotized. Do you understand?" She caught the doe's gaze and held it.

"Yes! YES! Just let me c--aaahhhhhhHHHH!" Dekhal hilted himself in her and took the scruff of her neck in his mouth as Sasha pinched her nipples; the doe rolled her eyes and launched into a bucking convulsion, her pussy spasming around Dekhal's manhood, her speech becoming nothing but half-moans as she writhed in their grasp. Sasha watched as the afterglow pushed the spark of intelligence out of Candice's eyes, burying it deep under a haze of lust and well practiced trance state.

"That's it, down you go," Sasha purred approvingly, watching the doe sag into Dekhal's lap. The lynx slid onto the table and scooted over, hanging her legs over the edge, one on either side of Dekhal; her lion obligingly turned his chair, giving Candice access to Sasha but leaving himself hilted inside the doe.

The lynx pulled her pants off slowly, sliding the fabric over her ass, down her well-toned legs. If she went any longer without release she feared she'd explode. "As you go deeper and deeper, you notice that you're thirsty from all the hard work you've been doing. You need something wet on your tongue. If you lick all the juice out of my pussy you'll feel much better, won't you?"

The doe leaned forward, sniffing hesitantly. Sasha continued. "The aroma is so enticing, this will be the best thing you've ever tasted." Candice took a tentative lick, then another, and soon she was lapping greedily at Sasha's sex. For her part, the lynx just arched her back and enjoyed it. Dekhal lifted Candice up, sliding out of her reluctantly and setting her down on his chair. The doe strained against his arms, stretching her neck out so she could keep "drinking", her nose getting slicked with Sasha's juice, pounding the cat's scent further into her brain.

Sasha loved the view--the way Candi's glazed eyes shone in the light, the way her tongue pushed her pussy lips aside to dart inside, the way the doe obviously swallowed everything she pulled in. "My fingers are tired, can you work on her tits?" Sasha whispered to Dekhal, clamping her legs around the doe's head so her pet wouldn't hear.

"Seriously? She's had hands on her chest for the better part of an hour. Doesn't she ever tire of it? Or get sore?"

"Not that I've seen."

Dekhal shrugged and started gently kneading Candice's furry mounds. Almost immediately her licking became slower, more docile, and one of her hands worked its way down between her legs. "Amazing."

"Yeah, she's really something. Anything you do to her tits makes her so submissive and horny that even the simplest things can put her in a trance. If you keep your hands on her and keep her calm, the sound of her own breathing is enough. Once she's used to you, you can sneak up behind her in a hall and grab her tits from behind; depending on her mood, she'll either yell at you or close her eyes, moan, and lean into your hands."

Dekhal's voice was reflective, distant. "It must be strange to have something artificial have that much of a hold on you."

"21-84."

Dekhal groaned and bucked his hips, humping the air for a good second before steadying himself. "Touche." Sasha grinned, then closed her eyes, twining her fingers through the doe's fur. Trapped between the cat's golden-brown thighs, Candi's head could barely move, but her skilled tongue still lapped greedily at the snatch before her. The doe had gotten her free hand involved, snaking up between her mouth and the cat's pussy, pushing into Sasha's cunny as the doe suckled on Sasha's clit, demanding the cat make more for her to drink. Sasha's sex was on fire, and in a moment the lynx was clenching around the Candi's tongue, giving her what she wanted. Sasha allowed herself a long, low, shuddering sigh of relief, then grinned--the doe had done well, and should be rewarded.

"Dekhal, cover your ears." The lion grinned, sensing her intent, and did as he was told. Sasha moved her legs aside, letting the doe hear her.

"21-84."

Candice jerked upright at the first, gasping, her hand caught motionless by the squeezing of her snatch. "21-84." The doe arched her back and rolled her eyes, juice squirting out around her fingers, matting the fur on her hand. "21-84." Candice fell out of her chair, writhing on the ground and moaning loudly, both her hands moving again, her fingers pushing into her sex, into her ass, tugging on her tail, rubbing her crotch, anything. Sasha watched the doe convulse a good bit of jealousy. She was more than a little tempted to find out who this '21-84' and have them work her over just so she'd know what it was like. Then again... why hadn't that happened already? What made her different from Candi and Dekhal? Food for thought.

When Candice's thrashing died down, Sasha started petting her chest, trying to calm the doe. She motioned for Dekhal to give her boss something to suck on--he still had some tension to work off from the trigger word. Candice took him into her mouth as soon as she smelled him. Sasha wasn't even convinced Candi was aware of her surroundings, or Dekhal, for that matter, but it wasn't important. They'd have plenty of time to--

There was a knock on the door. Why was there a knock on the door? Sasha glanced at her friends, but they were busy--Candice had gotten on her knees, and was sucking Dekhal passively, almost nursing his cock; for his part, the lion was massaging the doe's ears, oblivious to his surroundings.

The knock came again. No time to plan. Sasha strode up to the door, feigning confidence, and opened it. On the other side was a rabbit a bit shorter than even the lynx; he had gray fur, a kind face, the long and floppy ears characteristic to his species. He was holding a clipboard and he looked lost. "Might as well have tied himself and laid on a platter..." Sasha muttered under her breath.

"What? Excuse me, ma'am, I didn't mean to, er, intrude." The rabbit fellow--his nametag said he was Matt--had noticed Dekhal and Candi; his ears were alert, high above his head. "I'm looking for--"

"Me." Sasha interrupted, her voice dripping; she put her hand on the open door, trapping Matt against it. She was still pantsless, and the top half of her uniform had gotten a bit messy. The lynx leaned her head forward until she was face-to-face with her prey. "Right? I'm what you really want."

Matt's nose and pants were twitching; they'd been very busy in the room, he could smell it, and his cock was responding. "Uh, no, I'm--ahh!" Sasha grabbed the bulge in his pants and squeezed gently. "I'm trying to find--" she kissed him, hard and deep, pressing her tongue into his surprised mouth, then pulled him into the room and shut the door. Sasha slid forward, backing him against the wall, rubbing her chest up against him and never letting go of his member.

"Well, you've found me. Do you know what my uniform means?" Her hands worked swiftly, unbuttoning his pants, always maintaining contact--a playful brush here, a caress there. Matt nodded, unsure what to say. "It means I'll take you, I'll put you under, I'll make you mine, I'll hypnotize you, and there's nothing you can do to stop me." His eyes widened, and for the first time, he looked away from her eyes; he was glancing around the room, looking for a way out. Sasha put her finger on his lips, distracting him.

"Shh, ssh, relax, my little rabbit, it'll be the best thing you've ever felt." She slid his pants and undergarments down slowly, maintaining eye contact. With his member freed, she got back to massaging it, petting it gently, trying to calm Matt down and excite him at the same time.

"My friends are busy and I need some attention. I'll let you go when we're done, but for now, you're just going to relax and help me, aren't you? I need help, I'm soooo horny and I haven't had _any_dick, and you're just going to calm down and help, aren't you?" He turned to look at Dekhal and Candi again, but she turned his chin gently back, recapturing him. His eyes were getting tired of running. "Aren't you?" It was almost a whisper.

"Will... will I remember?"

Sasha shook her head sadly. "You'll be happy, sated, relaxed, but you won't remember. You can even feel it now, can't you? Everything's getting foggy, you're feeling happy and relaxed, you're starting to forget why you were nervous. You just want to stand there and let me take care of everything, so you can help me." Her thumb darted to his tip and back, slicking him with precum. Matt's ears were wilting. Sasha glanced at Dekhal--he'd noticed, told Candice to play with herself, and was coming to help. Perfect timing.

Sasha let the rabbit go and put her hands on his shoulders. The lion wrapped his arms around her waist and picked her up gently, positioning her over Matt. "In order to help me, you have to be strong, you're relaxed, but you have to stay standing. Do you understand, Matt? You have to stay standing if you want to help me." The rabbit nodded. She wasn't sure how far into trance he was, but she knew that the rumors about how inquisitors worked, combined with the scent in the room, would drag him down during the actual act if nothing else.

Dekhal lowered her slowly, carefully, a well-lubed dick pressing against her... tailhole? What? She squirmed, wanting to tell him to stop, but she couldn't break eye contact with Matt, it was too important. She was about to whisper when Dekhal lowered her more, the head sliding inside her, and a second dick slid against her pussy. She understood. Further and further, Sasha slid onto their manhoods; the sensation was extraordinary, Dekhal's studded cock tickling her tailhole as Matt filled her front. She struggled to catch her breath.

"That's it, Matt, go deeper, you're helping, you're relaxed as you slide deeper and deeper." She'd never been this full in her life. She was aroused enough that the cock in her tailhole felt good, but it was a different kind of pleasure; hot and intense, but duller, deeper somehow, next to the more familiar stimulation from Matt. With some of the weight taken off his arms, Dekhal had a free hand to play with her clit; Sasha's arms were busy steadying herself against the wall. She bit her lip, unsure how long she could take this kind of attention. It seemed like an eternity before both were finally hilted in her greedy body.

Finally willing to risk a low, throaty moan, Sasha began to rock forward, then back, shifting her weight between them, fucking both of them. First one, then the other pressed as deep as it could go, Dekhal's maddening teasing on her nub driving her onward, threatening her concentration. Matt was rigid, holding her up because she'd told him to, aware only of Sasha's eyes and whispered commands to go deeper (which had taken on new meanings themselves). He probably didn't even know that he was sharing her with Dekhal.

She gave them both a squeeze and Dekhal started to thrust, letting her clit go in favor of pulling her against him and holding her up; he moved her up and down on Matt as he thrust into her ass, the pressure inside her squeezing the rabbit's dick all the tighter. The thrusting sped up as Sasha started to roll her hips, abandoning any rhythm or plan, putting her hands on Matt's shoulders and riding him for all he was worth as Dekhal took her from behind, her tits bouncing freely, her eyes still holding Matt captive, his ears completely limp on his shoulders, his mouth hanging open.

Dekhal moaned low in his throat and he started to spurt inside her, Candi's treatment priming him too much despite all his recent activity. The sensation of sperm filling her back tunnel while her cunny was still being fucked surprised Sasha, but what surprised her more was what she did next: Sasha leaned forward and took the scruff of Matt's neck in her mouth. She supposed it made sense, on some level--he was prey, she was predator, after all--but she didn't have time to think.

He wailed, a strange, aroused, helpless sound, long and low, filling her ears with primal satisfaction as he gave himself up to her, pumping his seed deep inside her, being taken and loving it, by choice and not. Sasha yowled in triumph, squeezing both males for all they were worth, relishing the feel of being filled, of taking so much, of riding them both, adding her own juice to the mix. She barely had the presence of mind to whisper "sleep; sleep, and forget" to Matt as Dekhal lowered her to the ground.

* * *

The rabbit moaned, trapped by lust and black fur, his senses completely overwhelmed. Maria slid up and down his length, well-trained muscles rippling around his manhood, her breasts bobbing up and down in front of his face whenever her tongue wasn't in his mouth, her hands roaming over his chest, clawtips tickling and skritching him in the most delicious ways, her tail twined around his leg, the panthress riding the helpless rabbit.

Matt lay back on Sebastian, the larger male supporting his weight easily, sitting and leaning against the wall of the room they'd found him in, the panther's hands holding Matt down and his cock buried under the rabbit's bushy tail, deep inside his ass, rubbing against his prostate. Powerful pheromones from both cats assaulted his mind, eroding his sentience beneath a tide of lust, Maria's throaty murrs and yowls of pleasure attacking his ears, her taste still loud in his mouth.

He didn't know where they had gone, he'd said so, but the panthers weren't satisfied. He knew he shouldn't be in this situation, he didn't like males, he'd done nothing wrong, he didn't know anything, but it didn't matter. It was too much stimulation. His body was on fire, wave after wave of lust coursed through him as he was stimulated expertly by his captors, Maria had started talking at some point and he could vaguely hear himself agreeing but it didn't matter. His whole world was the black cat on top of him and the one under him, the one he was in and the one in him, he could feel himself getting close, it wouldn't take long, soon he'd be free to worship them properly. Wait, that wasn't right, he wasn't supposed to--

A white-hot wave of pleasure cleaned the thoughts from his mind.

* * *

"Five, you're starting to wake up now, becoming more aware of your surroundings. Four, soon you'll be fully awake, ready to go back into trance at any time; three, you can see clearly again. Two, thoughts beginning to return; one, almost there. Zero. Wake up, Candice."

Candi blinked, glancing around unsteadily. She looked like she wasn't sure how she'd gotten to her room and gotten dressed, but the doe could probably guess. Then she sighed. "You can't keep this up forever, Sasha. Sooner or later, they'll split you up. Why interrupt your work for this? We need you, you're too good at what you do. It's selfish to turn your back on us like this."

Dekhal shrugged. "Look, I know it's crazy, but if you felt like--"

"It's not just that." Sasha looked at the floor, unsure how to phrase what came next.

"It isn't?" Dekhal looked at her curiously.

"There's... something fishy going on around me. I don't know what it is, but it's not just a feeling. Candi, think about it. You showed up in my room because I was in danger, but you couldn't have known we'd be attacked, right?" The doe nodded. "So it wasn't that. I have feelings for Dekhal, yes, but they can't all just be from the time we've spent together now. It's impossible. Just saying his name puts images in my head that could only have gotten there from a lot of contact, or heavy trance, but I don't remember either."

Dekhal's tail was thrashing, his tone guarded. "What are you saying?"

"I'm saying..." Sasha swallowed. "We must have tranced each other, and a lot, before the last wipe."

Candice was very still and very quiet. "Yes, I can see how that might be so." The lynx turned on her.

"You knew?" Candice didn't reply. "What's going on? Tell me!"

"I don't think she can." Dekhal brushed the doe's cheek gently, but Candi didn't meet his gaze. "It's probably a reinforcement command."

"Even stranger." Sasha sat at Candice's desk, thinking. "It's not just that, either. One of my other prisoners, a wolf named Marcus--they told me he was a lieutenant, but he's actually just a mailman." Dekhal looked at her like she was crazy. "My hand to the gods, it's the truth. And then there's the reinforcement they tried to put on me to split us up, and the fact that I wanted so badly to resist it--that can't just be how I feel about you, Dekhal; we're trained from day one to accept reinforcements and control from on high. I shouldn't even have been able to do what I did. They're trying to split us up, Dekhal, but they go after me. It all seems to be following me around." Candice sat silently, her face a mask.

Dekhal looked at her. "Do you have any idea what that all means?"

Sasha shook her head. "And that attack on the ship, Candi said that wasn't supposed to happen. There's so much here that doesn't make sense."

Dekhal nodded. "Right. I'm not convinced the attack has anything to do with our situation, though. They were after the Calate, not you." Sasha froze. The propaganda clip replayed itself in her mind: The Calate, leader to the enemy's people, comforter for their wounded, speaker for their souls. She represents an important link in the chain of the home front of their war effort. Sasha looked at Candice, sitting quietly on the bed, then at Dekhal, his golden eyes watching her, concerned, almost pulling her in, their golden depths tempting even in her current predicament. "Are you ok? You look like you've seen a ghost."

"Candice," Sasha asked, softly, afraid of the answer. "You know where the Calate is, but you can't say, right?" The doe nodded, unable to do more. Sasha swallowed. "And you know what went on between Dekhal and I, before the wipe?" Candice nodded again, reluctantly, compelled to answer honestly by Sasha's suggestions, but unable to elaborate due to earlier conditioning.

Dekhal looked at Sasha, a scared look on his face. "Sasha, where are you going with this?"

The lynx pressed on. "Candice, you can't say what Dekhal and I were doing before the wipe, but I already know we were... involved... in an assignment. Was the assignment's target one of us?"

Candice nodded.

Sasha swallowed. Did she really want to know? If what she suspected was true, then she could be in grave danger. The lynx eyed Dekhal, no longer certain that the love she felt was okay despite being artificial; the thoughts running through her head twisted it, made it something frightening, made it the death of her. Could she live with it if it really was a lie, and not just made up? Or worse, could she live with not knowing? Sasha closed her eyes. "Candice, who was the assignment?"

"The Calate."

Sasha opened her eyes and looked at Dekhal. His ears were flat back, his face in shock, looking at Sasha as if seeing her for the first time and horrified at the implications. A person, stolen from their home, their country, completely reworked, fucking and taking minds for the enemy and loving it and them.

The lynx stood and approached the lion slowly, her emotions in shambles, and reached up, her right hand slowly crossing the gap between them. She wanted to touch his face, she didn't know why; she wanted to assure him everything was ok, but she didn't even know if that was true. It wasn't.

"Sasha." Candice's voice was soft, almost inaudible. The lynx turned to look at the doe; Candice had stood, and was now right behind Sasha, a curious expression on her face. The doe reached up, took the lynx's hand, turned it palm-up. Her fingers spread the fur on Sasha's wrist, exposing a scar underneath.

"Your assignment was the Calate--an office held by a lion named Galan Arathon IV. You know him as Dekhal." The numbers 21-84, etched on Sasha's skin and hidden by the fur, agreed.