FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Pyro furrowed his grey brow and flashed his paw-beacon around. It was so dark in here. Almost as dark as his mood. "It doesn't make sense for them to go deeper underground. The further down they are, the fewer avenues back to the surface. They're leading themselves into a dead end."

"They have transporter technology," Soldotna reminded. That's how they'd taken Field in the first place. "Maybe they'll hide in the lowest tunnel, and then transport a few levels up once we find them? Hide and seek, always one step ahead ... "

"Yeah, but that'll only get them so far. Aside from other parts of the caves, where would they ultimately go? Back to their shuttle? Luminous would detect it lifting off and capture them before they entered orbit." He'd like to think so, anyway. Rella was a fairly good shot. "No, they're stuck here. They were probably banking on escaping through the Gateway. They're desperate. I can smell it."

"They could be luring us into a trap," the chipmunk continued, nervously. Paws tightly gripping her phase rifle. She'd attached her own paw-beacon to the barrel, and the beam dipped and rose with her twitchy arms. "Get us into a tight space. Maybe they prefer close confines? Didn't you say that, before? Less room for their stingers to miss."

"Maybe." The wolf kept sniffing the air, making use of his powerful olfactory senses. He could smell everything. What Dotna had eaten for breakfast, what shampoo she used, even who she'd been around. He could even smell himself on her, too. "There can't be more than two of them left. We already killed a few," he said, unapologetically. This was war. No one said it was polite. "The three of us can handle them."

"You're so confident ... "

"There's no alternative," Pyro said. "You're a fighter, yourself. After a while, win or lose, you just have to trust your ability to compete. Doubt becomes your undoing."

"Well, the bigger they come, the harder they fall. Even predators are death's prey." A nervous chitter. "Why's Assumpta taking so long?" she asked, impatiently, looking over her shoulder. "She should be back by now. It's been five minutes!"

"It took us a lot longer than that to get down here. She'll be fine," Pyro said, nose drifting to the left. Red eyes pulsing. He shoved his weapon forward with a nod. "That way."

"Are you sure?"

"When I was a pup, my grandparents had an antique land-based vehicle. With gears and wheels. It used a black oil to ease the friction. That's what the wasps smell like." A dark pause, wrinkling his nose. "I can track them. I'll take the point. Assumpta will just have to catch up." They'd wasted enough time. With a growl, the wolf leapt ahead.

"What do you think they're gonna do to Field?" Dotna asked, scampering behind her battle-tested mate.

"Torture him. It won't be pleasant." His tail was hitched upward, like a warning sign. 'Don't tread on me.' When the wasps had attacked Luminous after his rescue, he hadn't yet known the crew. It had only been personal because they'd wronged him. They'd tortured him, after all. Not just physically. They'd destroyed his home, his ship. His ex-lover. His whole life. And when he'd finally rebuilt it, finally found peace, lo and behold, they were back. And still a stinger in his ass. They'd wronged not only him, this time, but his mate and his friends. He was out for blood.

"But Field already deactivated the Gateway. We saw it blink out," she continued. "Whatever information's in his head, it's useless, now. They're smart enough to know that."

"We can't be sure if the effect is reversible, or even if Field did it properly. The wasps soak up information like sponges. Even if there's a slim chance the Gateway knowledge might still be tactically useful in the future, they'll want to acquire it. We just have to hope Field can hold out 'til we get to him. Unfortunately, they ripped off his goggles. They'll hypnotize him pretty easily."

"Yeah, but if he has telepathic abilities, now, even latent ones, he might be able to resist them."

"I hope so ... "

"Pyro, wait." The rodent's ears straightened atop her head. "I hear something ... behind us ... "

They both stopped and spun, weapons cocking, light-beams revealing spots. Lots of cool, grey-blue spots.

"Assumpta!" Dotna breathed, lowering her arms in relief.

"I gave Wren the news. He put up a good front, but he took it hard."

"Are they sending reinforcements?" Pyro demanded.

"The snow rabbits are. They know this area better than our crew does. They're going to lockdown the Arctic fox shuttle, too."

"Well, we're not gonna stand here and wait for them, are we?" Dotna asked.

"No," Assumpta said, briskly, brushing past the wolf and chipmunk. "This way?" She pointed ahead. When the others nodded, she kept going. As highest-ranking officer present, she wanted the lead. "Something's been bothering me since we arrived. It's clear the wasps had someone inside the archaeological team. They wouldn't have known about the ruins, otherwise. But why would a snow rabbit trust an Arctic fox, let alone a wasp?"

"This might sound weird, but maybe they were a 'fear' junkie," Dotna replied. "Getting off on the 'survival instinct' stuff. Sexually, like a fetish? Maybe a fox came along and gave them a rebellious, naughty thrill, and they were addicted to it, and they didn't know they were also in bed with the wasps. Got in over their ears."

"Interesting speculation. Given rabbits' proclivity for breeding, sex would be the easiest way to blackmail them."

"Does it matter at this point?" Pyro asked. "The wasps' contacts are all dead. We're pretty sure about that, judging from all the bodies in the main cavern."

"It just highlights the fact that not everyone is who they seem. If the wasps had spies here, they undoubtedly have them elsewhere. Which means they could very well know classified information. About Luminous, the High Command ... " And yet we know so little about the wasps, in return.

"Let's speculate after we get Field back," the wolf insisted. "We're getting closer."

"How do you know?" Assumpta whispered.

"The fur on my nape is standing up," he mouthed back. "And I smell his scent, now. Faintly earthy. That's mouses." He didn't mention that he also smelled his blood. There was no reason to. They'd be able to smell it soon enough, themselves.

"I hear that mice are pacifists," the wasp taunted, whispering into Field's ear. Blood was still trickling down to the rim from an earlier bite. It hadn't yet coagulated. There were two wasps left. The other was keeping guard on the entrance to their hideout. "Is this true?"

No response.

"Answer me." He poked the mouse between the ribs, harshly.

"We prefer ... m-mouses," Field replied, defiantly, clearly in pain.

"That's not what I asked." The insect's mandibles closed on the already-damaged ear. Hard. He bit all the way through.

Tortured squeaks!

"Answer me."

"Yes ... y-yes ... " The mouse coughed, breath shaking.

"Yet you are party to a crew and a government that is warring against my species? Have you not violated your own moral code, simply by association? That makes you a hypocrite. Don't you deserve to be punished?" the wasp asked. "Answer me, prey."

Field bit his lower lip, shaking his head. Don't give them the satisfaction of caving in. Never mind that you're already a wreck, and you're going to have a heart attack if your adrenaline doesn't lessen. Passive resistance ...

"I shall punish you, then. Severely. However ... " One of its spindly legs traced the mouse's jaw-line. Toying with his whiskers in a twisted gesture of faux-intimacy. "I may make your death painless if you cooperate. I'll make it quick. Perhaps I will sting you directly in the heart? I can hear it beating. So fast. So frantic. The sound gets on my nerves."

Tears began to well in Field's eyes. His anxiety spiking dangerously. He was so afraid, he wanted to throw up. He felt dizzy. He blinked, repeatedly, vision blurring. Don't cry. Come on, hold yourself together.

"You know I am superior ... "

"W-why are you doing this? There's ... there's got to be a reason, other than instinct? You can't be that one-dimensional."

"You would not understand. Mammals have ruled the skies since space travel began. You've always been at the top of the food chain. Cocky, frivolous, messy things. You view insects as aliens. You are afraid of us. We deserve your respect. And we shall finally get it."

"Through violence?"

The wasp worked a limb inside Field's ear canal. "Respect comes from fear. Look at your own culture. Predators and prey? There is a natural order to things. To get to the top and stay there, you can't play nice. The only way to ensure mammals don't turn on us is to control them. Now, look into my eyes."

"N-no ... "

"Do it," the wasp insisted. "Or I will puncture your ear drum."

Field sniffled and looked away, but the wasp used its many arms (or were they legs?) to grip his skull, forcing him to look.

"I will ruin your ears, mouse. They are so big and delicate. I am sure they are sensitive. I'm sure you are proud of them. Don't make me hurt you." Those compound eyes pulsed a cool, electric blue. "Open your mind to me. To the Queen ... "

He twitched. Think good thoughts. Think about Adelaide. Beautiful bat. You love her. Think of all the pleasure she's given you. The comfort. Think pink. Pink and gold. Warm colors. Oh, you have to get back to her. You'll survive this. Think ... good. Thoughts! A squeak of terror dissolved them, though, as the wasp, through telepathic means, began to rape the mouse's mind, pushing through every corner of it in search of the Gateway knowledge.

But it was blocked!

The wasp buzzed, angrily. "Cursed dragons! Cursed bats! You've been intimate with too many telepaths. This is going to be much harder than I thought." The wasp began yanking at the mouse's clothes with his free limbs, keeping the sharpest one in the mouse's ear. "Let's see how long your appendages last in the cold. And how high your pain threshold is. Perhaps that will make your subconscious more cooperative. I don't have a breaking point. But I know you do. And I'm going to find it ... "

Adelaide's plum-colored eyes were redder than usual. She hadn't cried this much in years. She rubbed at them with her long, flexible thumbs, the only true digits on her unique, batty wing-arms. The velvety membranes folded and stretched as she turned about, restlessly. She was in Wren's ready room, lying on the couch beneath the windows. Her head was on Kody's lap. "If I were with them, maybe I could've helped," she finally said.

"Maybe," he relented, quietly, his thumb moving back and forth on her cheek. "Or maybe Field still would've been captured anyway, and your emotions would've compromised the rescue attempt. Or maybe you would've been captured, yourself. You can't second-guess things."

"Says who ... "

"Says me," the white rabbit replied.

A weak sniffle. "I thought, even with the war going on, that Field was safe with me. That I could protect him. But nowhere is safe," she whispered, darkly. "I see that, now. Prey is prey."

The rabbit rubbed her shoulders with his paws, now. "Don't be like that."

"He's my ... my mate," she said, shakily. "Aren't you emotional, too? You were his lover, once."

Kody swallowed, a lump in his throat. "Of course." He looked down, then up. Way more emotional than he was letting on. "But I'm a doctor. I see pain and death so much. I try to spare everyone from it, but sometimes it wins. So, I manage to compartmentalize it. Better than most, anyway. Believe me, I'm hurting, too. But I'm holding out hope."

"So am I," she insisted. "I'm just not used to being this scared, this helpless. There's nothing I can do but wait. It's ... I don't know how to act." She opened her fanged maw to say something further. Then closed it. Then opened it again. " ... it's ... it's just ... " She had to pause. Swallowing, then breathing deep. "We're linked, you know. We have this bond."

"Telepathically?"

"It ties everything together. Ties us," she emphasized, "together. He's so receptive. He's ... he's my passion. My comfort. Field ... " She began to cry again, pitifully.

It was an odd, shocking experience for Kody, to see the bat reduced to such raw vulnerability. She was one of the strongest females on the ship, personality-wise. A hot pink firecracker. But there was no assuaging her grief. He could only offer lame platitudes. "He'll be okay," he promised. "Don't cry ... " She was making his eyes water, now. "If anyone can rescue him, it's the rest of the away team. Assumpta and Pyro are predators. Hunters. Their instincts are sharp."

She nodded, managing to compose herself a little.

He stroked her cheek, again, even more tenderly than before. "Sometimes, we're just along for the ride." A pause. "Do you want me to give you something? A sedative? I can tell Wren to relieve you of duty ... "

"No." An adamant head shake. "No, I just need a few more moments."

"Are you sure?"

"Y-yeah ... "

The ready room doors swished open, suddenly, and Wren stepped through. Somber and quiet, his proud, bushy tail dipped at a lower-than-normal angle. He waited for the doors to close and hesitated before announcing, "We can't monitor anything that's going on down there. They're too deep underground. The High Command's dispatching backup." He bit his lip, awkwardly. "I assume we'll know something within half an hour."

Adelaide nodded, not making eye contact with him.

"I'm sorry I didn't let you go. I know you must blame me for this," the squirrel told her, trying to keep the quiver out of his voice. "You must hate me."

"I don't hate you," she insisted.

Wren looked to Kody, silently.

The rabbit met his gaze.

"It's not your fault the wasps are evil," the bat told the squirrel. "It's not your fault the dragons put that information in Field's head. Just ... it's just what happened. You're the captain. But you're also a friend of Field's, and that makes you a friend of mine." She paused, adding, "When I bite him? When we merge into each other's consciousness, I gain access to his memories. Including the intimate moments he spent with you. And Kody. I get to feel his love for you ... "

Wren, eyes glistening, sat down on the couch. On the other side of Adelaide, leaving her between the two males. She lifted her legs, extending them over Wren's lap.

"I'm his mate, now. But the three of us are all bonded to him. That makes us bonded to each other ... "

The squirrel rubbed his face with one paw, the other resting on the bat's hip. "I guess it does," he replied, quietly.

Kody reached for Wren's arm, gently holding to it.

The squirrel swallowed. "When my 'future self' visited the ship, remember? Saying lots of cryptic stuff?"

Both Kody and Adelaide nodded. Though it seemed so long ago, they remembered.

"He told me that he came back to stop me from warning the snow rabbits ... " A heavy breath. "Said that Luminous being exiled from the Federation would lead to Field's death. I tried to forget all about all that, hoping it was an exaggeration, a lie. Now, it haunts me."

"He's not dead," Adelaide insisted, faintly. The mere thought made her ache, made her heart feel exposed to the emptiest, deepest void. There was simply no hiding place from death, was there? It was inevitable. As prey, though, with no natural weapons, you fought it. As long as there was something worth living for, as long as you had love? Passion was your weapon. It gave you purpose. It made your struggle a noble one.

The rabbit stroked the bat's head again, tracing her sweeping ears. Making gentle 'shush' noises.

"Kody ... "

" ... yeah, Wren?"

"Did I do the right thing?" the squirrel asked, clenching his jaw as he wiped his eyes. "By ignoring my future self? It's easy to say that 'the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few,' but it's a lot harder to have to make that choice. And to live with the consequences. It's all on my shoulders. This is my fault."

"It is not," Kody insisted. "If you hadn't warned the snow rabbits, there's no reason to think civil war wouldn't have splintered the Federation, anyway. And the wasps were going to invade our space no matter what the political situation was. Everything would've still happened, just in a different order."

"With different results. If we'd never joined the High Command, Field never would've visited those ruins in the first place, and the wasps wouldn't have wanted him."

"Like I told Adelaide: stop second-guessing. It's just a coping mechanism," was all the white rabbit could say. "What's done is done. And we're gonna get through it, together."

Wren reached down to touch Adelaide's wing, nodding wordlessly. Telling Kody, quietly, "I love you. And you, Adelaide ... both of you. And Field. I can't imagine my life without all of you in it. I'd give up Luminous if it meant keeping any of you."

Adelaide reached up with her pink wing-arms and touched at them both, attempting a hug. They obliged. The three of them embraced, giving each other strength. And silently praying for the best.

"Put your goggles on. If they burst out at us, they may try to use their eyes." Pryo, of course, was impervious to their hypnotic gaze. The others weren't. The away team had made it further down into the caves. They were closing in on their target.

"Shouldn't we turn off our lights?" Dotna asked.

"Not yet."

Assumpta, raising a brow behind her goggles, noticed, "You've stepped in front of me. And not for the first time. You are insistent on taking the point?"

"Do you have a problem with that?" The wolf turned his head. Those eyes. They burned like hot coals.

She wasn't intimidated by the stare, no matter its color or vibrancy. "Your obsession with the wasps may cloud your judgment. I'm more emotionally neutral. If anyone fires the first shot, it should be me. I'm more controlled. A rescue operation should be surgical. That requires finesse. As a feline, I possess it."

"Oh, but not me, huh? Not wolves? We're just brutes?"

"Step behind me," Assumpta hissed, huskily. "That's an order."

Pyro bared his fangs, a low rumbling coming from his chest. "No."

"Hey! Stop it, both of you," Dotna squeaked, stepping between them. She tried to push them apart. They were both stronger, though, and didn't budge. So she gave up and huffed, choosing to berate them, instead. "I realize we're in a high-stress situation. I deal with it by being anxious. You deal with it by lashing out. Fine. But this isn't a pissing contest. We're hunting wasps, not each other. Focus your aggression on them."

Assumpta grinded her teeth, mumbling an apology.

Pyro grumbled something back.

"Good," Dotna said, taking the point herself. "I'm shorter than you two, anyway. Makes no sense for me to be firing from behind you." Moving forward, she looked at Pyro over her right shoulder, making sure he behaved.

He did, reluctantly.

"They were working at this site for a few years. These must be sleeping quarters, ahead." The chipmunk had noticed a cluster of sealed entryways.

"Or storage spaces, or power closets," Assumpta said.

"Doesn't matter," Pyro said. "The caves end, here. So, Field's behind one of those doors. He has to be. And we better choose the right one, first. Cause if we don't, and they find out we're close by? They might make a run for it while we're in the wrong room. Or transport to another one. Then we'll have to search all over again."

"Well, which one did they go into?" Dotna whispered, urgently. She opened her scanner and tapped at it. "They're jamming our signal. Or maybe the rock this far down serves as interference enough." Probably both. "You can smell them, right?"

Pyro froze. "Yes. But, if I'm scenting right, they went in and out of every room. To throw off my nose ... " They were crafty. He'd give them that.

"Can't you detect which scent is freshest?" Assumpta asked.

"Not unless there's a clear time lapse, which is there isn't. All the scents are fresh. But my eyes," the wolf mouthed. "Heat signatures! It's cold down here. So, whichever door Field and the wasps are behind, there's gonna be body heat in that room. It should slip through the cracks in the door."

"What's the margin of error?" the snow leopard continued. "Wasps aren't particularly warm-blooded, are they?" To be honest, she knew next to nothing about insect biology. Other than a few simple terms like 'thorax' and 'antennae.'

"Just be quiet and let me focus." He stared, intently, at each doorway. Looking for the faintest of ripples in the air. He found them. But they were coming from more than one door. It was possible that equipment was left on in these rooms and was giving off heat, as well. It was hard to distinguish between natural and technological heat, but he could do it. He had no choice, did he?

Dotna's whiskers began to twitch, her paw-pads sweating as she clutched her weapon and waited for Pyro's signal.

Assumpta maintained that cool veneer, unsuccessfully. She was close to becoming unhinged.

Finally, Pyro nodded, pointed with a big, grey paw. One of the middle doorways. He aimed his phase pistol at the control chime. Took a deep breath. And fired.

CHOOM! CHOOM!

Ruby-red energy pulses.

Sparks!

Maybe it hadn't been locked in the first place, but they couldn't take the chance. If the wasps heard them trying to pry it open, they'd be warned. The door short-circuited and was forced open, the three furs pouring into the room, paw-beacons piercing into pitch-dark, bouncing off of storage and stasis containers. Pyro could almost hear Dotna's heartbeat. He could certainly hear her ragged breathing. The rodent's striped, brushy tail was flickering up and down.

Assumpta's eyes, while not having Pyro's overall versatility, were better equipped for regular night vision. She could see into the shadows. She was about to motion for Pyro when a drop of fluid landed on her uniform. On her shoulder. It smelled bitter. She wrinkled her nose and looked up. Eyes widening as a wasp, stinger dripping with venom, dropped down from the ceiling and onto her. She yowled and thrashed, sinking to her knees. The stinger jabbed, as she twisted. It went through the narrow gap between her arm and side, slicing her shirt open and grazing the fur beneath. Barely missing flesh. It retracted, quickly, like a jackhammer, aiming to drill the feline into poisonous submission.

Pyro, without thinking, growled and swung his phase rifle like a club. As hard as he could. Cracking it against the wasp's head, shattering its already fragmented eyes into hundreds of pieces. The wasp shrieked and raised its flimsy, gossamer wings in self-defense.

Assumpta, panting, crawled hurriedly away and leapt to her foot-paws with feline agility while Pyro delivered a rabbit-like kick to the wasp's chest. In true animal mode, he didn't even use the pistol. He just used his body. His strength. His claws. A wolf's natural defenses. Pummeling the creature, taking out months of pent-up hostility on it. Not stopping until he was sure it was dead. Saliva dripped from his fangs. They were bared. Chest heaving, he spun around. "Where's the other one?!" he demanded, in a rage.

"Where's Field?" Assumpta asked, with slightly more self-control.

"Dotna!" Pyro called.

The chipmunk, behind a stack of stasis barrels, couldn't answer. Her voice was caught in her throat. She had her rifle aimed at a wasp's chest. But the wasp, in turn, has its stinger to Field's throat. There was no way she could react fast enough to stop the unconscious mouse from getting stung. Maybe she could try talking to the wasp? Maybe she could distract it, somehow. "You're surrounded. It's over," she told it, lamely, eyes wide behind her goggles.

The insect tilted its angular head, eyes glowing an eerie sort of blue. It buzzed, lowly, but said nothing.

"If you wanna get out of here alive, you better cooperate."

"My life is one of service to the Queen," the wasp replied, enigmatically. In a dry, scratchy voice. "It makes no difference how I leave."

"I think it does," Dotna replied. She was sure, by now, that Pyro and Assumpta realized she was talking to a wasp and were trying to ambush it from the sides. Just keep it distracted. "You went to all this trouble to find out about these ruins, the Gateway, to capture Field ... "

"Our aim was never to capture the mouse. You simply delivered him to us. We took advantage of good fortune."

"Well, I assume you hypnotized him? Got the information you needed? The Queen can't use that information if you can't deliver it to her."

"The Queen knows all." The wasp's spindly legs stretched, warningly. "She knows you are here, right now. Telepathically. She knows through me."

Dotna swallowed, finger poised on the trigger of her weapon. "You make her sound like a goddess."

"She is."

"On what grounds?" Dotna challenged. "Rumor has it that wasp princesses become Queen by eating the eggs of their rivals. Until their young are more numerous and can control the opposition." She'd had a look at some of the High Command intelligence reports Aria had made Rella privy to. They weren't pleasant. "Sounds pretty barbaric to me."

"And yet our species has hundreds of others, including yours, on the verge of destruction," the wasp crowed.

"Step away from the mouse."

"He is useless to me," the wasp insisted. "But not to you."

"If you kill him, you're gonna die, too."

"I do not fear death."

"If you truly had no fear of dying, you would've killed him already. But you haven't. You're using him as leverage, buying time for an escape," Dotna scoffed, maybe playing too many of her cards. But she had to get under its exoskeleton, somehow. "Everything has a survival instinct. Even something as stupid as you."

The wasp's mandibles opened and closed in anger. Its wings buzzed, beginning to blur.

"Let's say you succeed in conquering everything. The whole quadrant, the galaxy. What, then? If the whole goal of your species is to expand and control, to impose your perfect order on things, what happens when that goal is met? Won't you lose your identity? Will you ever be satisfied?"

"Pointless rhetoric," was the scoffing response to her words.

"I'm glad you agree. It is pointless. This war, this conflict ... what a waste." She could sense, suddenly, that someone had gotten close enough to the wasp to strike. Almost. Just a few more inches. Keep talking. "What did you do to the mouse?"

"I told you. I got the information I needed."

"Did you?" the chipmunk challenged. And she nodded, suddenly understanding. "That's why you haven't killed him. Not because you care about survival. But because you couldn't get past the telepathic blocks in his mind! He has information the Queen desperately wants. And failing the Queen? Well, that's worse than death to you, isn't it?" she challenged.

The wasp tensed even more, lifting its stinger from Field's neck and aiming it at Dotna. "Where is the wolf? The one that was howling? You are attempting to distract me so he can attack! It will fail."

Assumpta hissed, launching at the wasp. Her claws were unsheathed from her paw-pads, and they sliced like knives through the creature's exoskeleton. The weight of her body crashing into the insect. Landing atop it on the floor with a sickening crunch.

Dotna aimed and fired at the stinger, which seemed to have a mind of its own. Shearing it clear off.

The snow leopard gave the wasp a final, violent shove, and then stood up, breasts heaving. "I'm not a wolf," she muttered, darkly.

Pyro, handing his weapon to Dotna, began checking on Field. Big, sturdy paws running over his trim, golden frame. He was still breathing, even if his pulse was weak. Clearly, he'd lost a lot of blood. His ears were pale. Ropy tail was cold and limp. Same with his mouse-hood. He was completely bare. The wolf, not normally one for emotional extremes, felt a lump in his throat. He swallowed, scooping the harvest mouse into his arms. "Let's get the hell out of here," he said, stoically.

Without a further word, the battered, weary team headed back to the surface just in time to meet the snow rabbit backups, who didn't seem to notice how cold or bleak the surrounding environment actually was. They took Field into their pod, having brought a doctor. Pyro went with Field while Assumpta and Dotna warned the newcomers of the carnage they'd find in the caves, telling them, as far as they knew, that the Gateway had been shut down. The mission had been a success. But had the cost been too high?

The war with the wasps had seemed, at times, like a distant illusion, a hallucinogenic fear, something being done off in the shadows. Not anymore. They had bruises, now. There was no turning back. It was victory or death.