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Eveser and Darrow flew alongside Kane who carried the unconscious (and restrained) Behaku general on his back. They were flying back to the Omaki fortress in order to assess the current situation involving the Behaku.

"Why do I always have to carry it?" Kane whined to Eve, who looked at him and then laughed and kept flying without giving him even a second glance. Kane rolled his eyes and looked forwards. He saw a stronghold appear to shimmer out of thin air! He looked over to Darrow then at Eve.

"Whadya think? Pretty cool, eh?" Darrow laughed and flew towards the ground as two spotlights came on, guiding them to the path leading to the front door. The three landed right in front of the large metal doors and stepped back as they slowly began to swing open.

Two soldiers with long swords stepped out to escort the trio inside, each one taking a side of the group and walking with them.

"Any idea where I could find Teya?" Darrow asked the nearest soldier.

"Beats me, last time I saw here she was foolin' around in the Cobra's Nest," the soldier chuckled. Teya was the Behaku-turned-Omaki head of chemistry and technology at the Omaki stronghold. She spent most of her time in the sector of the base specially designed for her skills, a place the soldiers called the Cobra's Nest. The name was derived from two things, the amount of deadly toxins and poisons that emanated from that sector, and from the literal fact that a cobra spent most of her time there.

"Gotcha," Darrow said and motioned for Eve and Kane to follow him. They walked inside the main building and stayed close behind Darrow. Darrow led them through a cluster of crowded hallways and a long empty hallway where they passed windows looking out onto training Omaki warriors. As Eve walked by, he noticed some of the 'Omaki' had blackened tattoos on their lower backs if they were female or on the upper arm if they were male. He noticed them right away...they were Behaku who had recently changed sides. Eve looked away.

"So where is this place Darrow? How much further?" Kane asked.

"It's only been like two minutes of walking, how tired can you be?" Darrow looked back.

"I'm not tired! This thing smells like shit! Why doesn't one of you try carrying it for a little bit?" Kane whined. Darrow rolled his eyes and turned around, grabbing the imp-like Behaku and slinging it over his shoulder. As they walked past the mess hall, they noticed everyone became silent. The whole room watched them. Then it became filled with whispers, some excited, some nervous. Eve noticed a funny thing; all of the whisperers were ex-Behaku! They looked at the creature slung over Darrow's shoulder and pointed, eyes widening and looking at eachother. The trio quickly made their way out of the hall and listened as it became a rabble of noise once again.

"I think they recognized him," Eve said calmly to Darrow. Kane looked at him.

"He must be important," Kane muttered. Just then, the Behaku coughed a gout of blackened blood on the floor. Kane jumped.

"Won't be so important six feet under," Eve said and smirked grimly.

Kane, Darrow, and Eve finally reached the large steel doors of the Cobra's Nest. They were locked down with a fingerprint activated seal and a deadbolt kept the doors shut even further. Darrow looked up into a camera right next to the big doors.

"Teya! Let us in, it's an emergency," Darrow said forcefully. There were a few seconds more of silence, then the deadbolt swung back and the doors opened. There were gusts of smoke pouring from around the cracks in the door and around its large frame. Darrow smiled and took a few steps inside.

There was a whistling noise and the sound of something sharp sticking into something hard. A metallic clang and then another noise. Then a shout.

"Wait! Teya I'm not here to bug ya about the rat problem...I really need your help!" Darrow cried. There was a female scoff and then more noises.

"Oh yea just like last time right?" a young, gorgeous voice came through the smoke.

"Really! We need something identified!" Darrow called out. Then there was silence.

"Alright...make it quick..." the female voice said. There were no other noises. Then the female voice shouted again. "Well? I don't have all day you two..."

Eve and Kane looked at eachother and then slowly walked into the room. When they got past the smoke screen, they saw a large bluish-white lab full to the brim with equipment! Beakers, test tubes, Bunsen Burners, chemicals of all kinds!

Darrow stood on the other end of the room with a figure beside him. The figure was slender, curved beautifully...a body like an hourglass...she had dark green scales with a black tattoo running along her back and hood. The female cobra stood at 5'10'' with bright blue eyes, a pink tongue, and fingernails painted pink while she wore dark red lipstick. She also wore a white labcoat.

"Guys, meet Teya!" Darrow introduced them. "Teya, meet Eveser and Kane!"

They exchanged hellos...well at least Eve did...Kane couldn't pull his jaw off the floor for long enough to say anything!

This scaled goddess that stood before him was too great for words! Teya looked at him oddly.

"Hey, is your buddy gonna be ok? He's kinda starting to, y'know; freak me out a little..." Teya whispered to Eve.

"Oh yea he'll be just fine...I got his medicine riiiiiiiight...HERE!" Eve said and smacked Kane with the side of his head! Kane shook his head and looked around, pretending to be wary...and failing...

"Now, what do you need me to look at so badly?" Teya asked. Darrow hoisted the Behaku General off of Kane's back and set him down on a lab table. Teya's eyes widened and her pupils became tighter slits! She reached under the desk and snapped on a pair of rubber gloves, as well as retrieving a rod for probing her 'victim'.

"Where did you find this thing? How long ago? What condition was he in?" Teya fired off questions to Eve and Kane, who looked at eachother quizzically.

"We found him about 3 hours ago, walking through an alleyway, half-dead," Eve said.

"Yea and now he's just three-quarters dead..." Kane mumbled.

"Was there anyone else around? Did you see if he had fought anyone previously?" Teya prodded the decaying flesh. The Behaku's exposed lung gasped for breath...each one becoming shallower.

"We don't know, we just found him...we didn't see anyone else...why? Do you know what's in him?" Kane asked, taking his chance to move closer to the poison-queen...

"Well I can tell you one thing Dr. House, it definitely ain't Lupus...it's called Trioxinate Mytoglysceride...I haven't seen it outside of textbooks...the Devil's Toxin. This assassin knew exactly what he was doing..." Teya said slowly. "It comes from a plant...but there haven't been any in at least 500 years I think...a long time, you get it..."

"Wait a minute...I thought only things like acids could melt skin? Poisons don't do that...do they?" Kane asked.

"I'll explain...the stuff can only be weaponized by replacing the viral DNA inside a virus protein coat with strands of DNA from the Devil's Toxin plant. After that you shoot up the stuff...then it gets fun. The viral cells do what they do and infect other cells, but instead of creating more viruses, the infected cells create the base form of the plant's chemical makeup. Every one of the body's skin cells is used to secrete the toxin. Three hours? I've never heard or read of anyone surviving for more than ten minutes!" Teya finished, staring wide-eyed at the poor creature dying on her table.

"I think we found someone who did..." Darrow said grimly. "Teya, do you remember anything about our victim? Do you know him at all?"

"Sure! His name is General Raptor; he used to be one of Lord Swade's favorites. He was very powerful for his size...had the Yoda kind of thing going for him...but he never had any enemies inside the Palace. He was a good leader from what I heard..." Teya took off her gloves and looked at the three of them. "But even he can't handle something like this..."

"Is there a cure? An anti-venom? Anything we can do for him?" Eve asked. Teya got flustered.

"This kind of toxin hasn't been seen in god knows how long! I don't even think the guy who made it knew the cure! There are some treatments I can use for the symptoms...but it's like HIV or AIDS, I can't treat the source," Teya said and looked away, walking back over to her desk and sitting down.

Darrow nodded his head slowly and bowed it. Eve and Kane looked at eachother.

"We need to wake him up," Eve said. "We need to find out who did this..."