The Deception Ch. 4 Requiem
The Deception
Chapter 4
Requiem
Jonas woke up in his armor on a cave floor with his rifle next to him. He sat up and shook his head to try and get rid of his grogginess but his vision remained blurred. Everything seemed to flow in and out of his eyesight and something told him that this wasn't sleep-induced and that he had been drugged but couldn't tell where he was when he saw a foot swing into view just before it connected to his face sending him skidding backwards on his back. He tried getting up but failed three times and he looked up to see leopard as it was about to kick him again he put his hand up in semi surrender and the leopard lowered it foot to the floor and it got on all fours and padded over to him and sniffed him. Jonas's only reaction was to grab the things snout and punch it but he was too weak and the leopard had the upper hand with him not being able to see very well. Jonas rolled over with his back on the cave floor looked up to see tribal markings along the ceiling but he couldn't make out what they all meant in his state. He saw something over him and squinted his eyes to see what it was but by the time he recognized it he was sent back into a world of darkness.
The leopard stomped him and looked down to see that he stomped too hard again. Leona came over and saw Jonas knocked out with a paw print on his face and armor. She looked over at the other leopard and he lowered his head and flattened his ears against his head. Leona grabbed him by the throat and slammed him into the wall and snarled. The leopard whimpered his surrender and tried to break out of her grasp when she let him go and kicked him in the side. The leopard ran out of the cave as she turned to have a look at Jonas to see if anything was broken but couldn't tell because of his armor. Jonas's trigger finger twitched and he contorted his face in horror and agony when he sat up so fast and grabbed his rifle that Leona didn't have time to react and she saw Jonas hyperventilating, eyes full of fear and...hate. She had never seen hate as intense as Jonas's and she backed away a few feet giving him his space. Jonas blinked a few times and tried to get the images out of his head but to no prevail. He dropped the rifle and it clattered away from him as he curled up into a ball and was holding his head with both his hands. Leona approached him slowly on all fours wondering, what caused his reaction and why he seemed so afraid when he fought without remorse or mercy. Jonas didn't even meet eye contact with her when she reached him and she hugged him which threw him off guard. He remembers something in the forest but he only remembers the fact that he had finished mating with Leona. He sat in shock at the memory realizing that the periods he blacks out it's because of his other side. He bite his tongue without Leona knowing and bit so hard that it bled.
Leona noticed that he was tense. Very, very tense. She looked at him and he seemed to be troubled about something. "What's wrong, Jonas?" she asked with some concern. Jonas looked at her and slightly frowned and then replied "There are two sides to me Leona. You met the other side the other day." He looked away mad at himself for not having control of his animalistic tendencies but like he thinks of savage creatures. It. Can't. Be. Helped. He remembers getting emails that read the same thing, ominously from the same sender that he couldn't rely too. Leona didn't understand what he meant by "his other side". "Wait wait, you're telling me that you couldn't control yourself." She asked him indirectly with a hint of pain. Jonas looked at her and lightly placed a hand on her cheek. "I lose control when I'm around beings like you...it's like I'm my own animal and cage and I don't know how to deal with it." Jonas looked down and then back at her. "The feelings I felt back there didn't go away. I'm still wondering how that could be but something tells me it's from my other half." Leona looked at him and then nuzzled into his neck while hugging him tightly. Jonas just let a soft sigh out and watched as she had fallen asleep in her embrace which made Jonas smile a bit when he saw movement in the shadows a he as quiet as he could pulled out a flare and lit it off and sent it flying into the shadows.
The flare landed at the feet of a leopard with the same exact spots as Leona as it padded over it sniffed him and then licked him on the neck. "Well, I didn't imagine my twin sister to find such a man." The leopard said as it got up on its hind legs and walked like a human. Leona stirred and woke up looking at Jonas and then seeing him look at something, followed his gaze. "Sis, what are you doing here?" Leona asked with some annoyance. The other leopard giggled and responded. "Everyone is worried sick about you and it was hard enough following your scent and I can tell that you're not in heat anymore." Leona kinda blushed and then quickly let go of Jonas. "It's not what you think it is." She said to her sister but her sister just started laughing out loud and she tried to speak between her laughs."A-a-and..haha..w-what...hahaha...makes-s....y-you...hahaha think I don't know." Jonas saw that she was practically purring from the entertainment but he looked at Leona and saw that she looked ashamed of something when he spoke out. "Ok that's enough!" Leona's sister stopped laughing immediately and looked at her sister and she got a solemn look. "Sis, I'm sorry...I didn't mean it that way." Leona just shook her head and walked off leaving Jonas and Leona's sister staring after her. Jonas looked at Leona's sister and said with a very reprimanding tone. "Real smooth girl...Real smooth." Leona's sister looked at him and shot back. "What!? What did I do!?" Jonas just shook his head and walked over to his rifle and slung it over his shoulder. 'Where are you going?" She asked him with a hint of lust. He snapped around and then sniffed at her and then looked her in the eyes. "None of your damn business." Jonas walked past her and headed towards the light outside of the tunnel. She padded up behind him wondering why he sniffed her when she caught her own scent in a slight breeze from outside and sheepishly backed away from him.
Jonas was surprised that a tracker couldn't remember their own scent and he didn't want anything to do with her. He popped up his HUD even without his helmet on and saw that he was very close to his fallen comrades and headed off towards the east away from the cave entrance. A spear hit the ground near his foot as a male leopard jumped down in its cloaking device and showed itself to him. "Have you seen a leopard much like Leona?" Jonas just nodded towards the cave he was just in and the leopard said "Thanks. My names Kh'ris. Yours?" "Jonas" He turned away from the leopard and began to walk east again. Unbeknownst to Jonas but he was going to have one hell of a bad day when he got to his fallen comrades. The reason so was that it was a trap set up by H.I.M.F or the Human Interstellar Marine Force. Jonas got to the clearing and was about to run over to his comrades but the sound of rifles and bolters being loaded filled his ears and he immediately checked his magazine in his rifle. He only had few remaining charges before his last clip was dry and empty. He walked out with his rifle leveled at a make shift camouflage brush and fired a hail of plasma at it and with it taking out five marines. He ran over as cross fire started up and plasma going everywhere and Jonas's adrenaline kicked in making everything slow down exponentially and Jonas grabbed the charges from the bodies of...Marines!? Jonas was shocked to see the H.I.M.F crest on the marines chest plate but he remembered he was being shot at when he ran back into the clearing shooting at where the muzzle flashes were coming from.
Meanwhile, Leona and the other leopards heard gunfire and it seemed to a big gun fight just by the sound of the bolters and plasma rifle mixing together and Leona immediately began to run towards the sounds catching Jonas's scent in the wind and was scared that something happened to him. The other leopards ran in the opposite direction going to get help if it was needed.
Jonas ran so fast around the clearing that the marines couldn't get a shot off that would put him down as they were ordered to from up high. The marines were getting frantic seeing their brethren falling one by one and not being able to see Jonas because of the speed at which he moved. After what seemed like eternity for Jonas was only a few short seconds in reality, he took out the last few marines with a swift kick to the head and a hail of plasma to the chest but the last one he took out his sidearm which was an old fashioned .50 caliber Desert Eagle and shot the last marine in the head. Just as he shot the marine in the head Leona came running out of the brush and saw him shoot the marine. Jonas looked over as his adrenaline finally ran out and he was breathing heavily. He looked down and noticed two plasma scars on his armor and he knew that he had been hit twice but he wondered why he didn't feel the pain. Leona slowly walked over to him almost tripping on dead bodies as she walked over to him and asked in a low voice "You did all this? By yourself?" Jonas nodded when Leona saw the plasma burns on his armor and she looked at him worriedly. "I don't feel the pain. I heal from wounds like this as if it were a minor inconvenience." She looked at him puzzled and she looked at the other marines and asked "Were these your friends?" "No, these were men who probably had an order to kill on sight or were ordered to hunt me down but the thing that scares me is that no one but my sarge knew we were coming here." Jonas kicked one over and saw that he was still breathing and that's when he put the barrel of his Desert Eagle on the marines head and asked "Why the fuck are you trying to kill me?" The marine gulped and said "I'm not telling you shit." Jonas fired a round into the ground next to his head. "Tell me or the next round is going through your thick skull." The marine obviously scared nodded "Ok, ok we were ordered to hunt you down and take you out since you were some experiment or something but we were apparently unmatched against you." Jonas put away the pistol and held a hand out to the marine. "If I let you live will you tell them to stop hunting me?" Jonas asked while looking at the marine. The marine reached for his hand and Jonas drew it back and said "You have to promise me that you will tell them to stop hunting me." The marine looked at the ground and seemed to be contemplating his predicament and then he nodded, taking his hand. "I promise." Jonas nodded and handed him a rifle. "You might need this to get back to your drop ship." The marine nodded and took off.
Jonas looked at his hands and saw blood on them. He thought to himself. "what have I become?" He looked up at the sky and let out a cry of rage, anger, and sorrow.
To Be Continued...