Yuki gulped, seeing the tall shadow rising from the left side of her bed. She wanted to run or fight, but really, what could she do with her tendons severed, with her muscles torn, and with her claws torn away. Blaguna’s fish-like eyes burrowed into her while her fingers reached, pushing into the scar tissue of the wolfkin’s left arm, tearing it away, and allowing warm blood to spill out.
"What will we do today," Blaguna whispered lovingly, allowing the warmed red blood, mixed with pus, to color her fingers as she peeled away skin at the edges of injuries, "What miracles should we perform on your body?"
She disappeared, and Yuki felt a tugging sensation at her left ear. She tried to turn back and found herself immobilized.
"Tell me. Do you still feel brave?" Yuki clenched her fangs, feeling them crumbling in her mouth and spearing her with another surge of pain. This monster took even this from her, rather than tearing off her fangs, Blaguna carefully ruined them. This was what she wanted to do with Yuki. Ruin her. Death was a sweet release compared to this hell.
"Tell me," Yuki felt as the knife began to slice part of her ear. A tiny part, but the poison in the knife forced the pain, which shook her body like a thunderous drum. One slice, "Tell me" Another slice, another surge of pain, "Teeelllll meeee." Another. Another. Anoth…
"No!" Yuki cried out, feeling hot piss running down the bed, "No. I am weak. Path… Pathetic," She knew the words, the woman taught her well over the weeks. Saying it was yet another form of torture, "Please, end it, miss."
"Should I bring Sly?" Blaguna asked innocently. In these weeks, she learned everything that Yuki knew. There was no way to hide it from her. Not when burning hot hooks slid beneath Yuki’s shoulder blades. Not when Blaguna hooked up Yuki to a machine that made her experience whole months of cold water dripping onto her forehead in a span of minutes, driving the scout insane. Both physically and mentally, Yuki no longer dared oppose her, "Should I releeeease you and make him take your place?"
"No."
"Are you sure?" Blaguna whispered into her ruined ear, reaching out with her knife and touching her ear drum, "Don’t you want to be free?" Her voice was filled with a genuine care, almost tricking Yuki into taking the last step. Sly was there, in this prison. Blaguna told her that he stays unharmed as long as Yuki wants it.
"Don’t touch him. Please." Yuki begged, and all sound went missing from her left ear, accompanied by another surge of pain that made her scream and cry in pain.
"I see," Blaguna stood up, throwing away the bloody knife and taking cables, "You need a proper stimulation. A bit of electric shock is bound to shift your perspective," Electricity hissed at the end of the cables, while Blaguna moved them to Yuki’s breasts, "Just make the right decision, Yuki. It won’t last." Blaguna said with a worry in her voice and pushed cables into Yuki’s breasts, burning away any fur that managed to grow overnight and scorching her skin anew.
Yuki shouted from pain, jumping on her bed and grabbing the rails of the medical bed, breathing hard. She felt a hand on her shoulder and heard the soothing, calm voice of doctors next to her. They were telling her that everything was fine and that she had simply experienced another nightmare. Following their instructions and trying not to look at herself, Yuki slowed her breath, closed her eyes, and tried to calm herself. The wolfkin nearly bent the bed railing upon sensing that she had wet herself once again.
Her heart skipped a beat upon hearing the loud sound of an open door. Sly told her that Blaguna was dead. The gallant fool even recorded the bitch’s last moments and sent them over for Yuki to watch at any time. But each time upon hearing the sudden sound, each time upon closing her eyes, Yuki heard Blaguna’s voice and sensed her presence, becoming frozen with fear that she will be dragged away at any moment, thrown back into her cell where… Yuki opened her eyes. Blaguna was dead, and yet, through her fear, she lived still.
Another horror walked into the room. A monster of alabaster-colored skin, wearing a strict military coat, with amber eyes, barely gave a glance to Yuki while the warlord walked into the middle of the room, holding a wooden cutout made in the form of a person between her palms. She put the strange figure next to the furthest wall from the bed and turned to look at Yuki.
"Warrior," Alpha’s face features looked ugly and rough, almost as if they were cut from stone, and her voice matched the crude visage, "Can you speak and move?"
"Warlord, I am opposing such treatment of the patient," Hekanta, one of two medics in the room, squeaked with barely contained fear, "The patient needs time to…"
"I can, warlord." Yuki replied, earning a dissatisfied look from the male doctor.
"Blaguna’s had cubs," Alpha spared no look for either of the medics, "Most of them were already shipped off to Iterna. One is still here. Does this bother you?"
"Warlord, I demand that you stop." Hekanta said it louder. The warlord spared her no glance.
"Should it?" Yuki asked in genuine surprise. Aranea told her about it during the night when she was sitting next to her bed with Kate, Kaleb, and Sly, "I honestly never gave a single thought about them."
"You passed my test," Alpha nodded, "Now stand up."
"I may need a moment to clean myself, ma’am" Yuki made an apologetic face.
"Later. Stand. Up." A wave of fear hit the warrior, speeding her heart. Alpha was getting impatient.
Yuki obeyed, refusing help from either Marco or Hekanta to find her footing. This was the first time she tried her new legs. She took a moment to look herself over. Her fur grew anew, abnormally fast, covering her body thickly like before. The scars on her body disappeared—they were not faded, they were completely gone. She raised her paws, enjoying the newfound strength in them. She could run, she could jump even…
A pulse ran through her body, and a tingle of horror ran down her back. Yuki barely felt them working inside her body, making her stronger, according to both Ingo and Sly. If this were all, she could ignore this feeling. Her bones glowed, and her veins looked like silver, shining brightly despite her fur. She could see every bone in her body with ease, glittering with silver. Yuki’s whole skeleton was not replaced, her destroyed muscles and tendons still exist, the incurable back damage was ever present… But now a host of nanomachines lived in her as well, merging with her every organ, bone, and muscle. This is why Yuki asked Aranea to find a way to keep Sly and others away from her for a while. Yuki was beyond thankful to them, she was ready to die for them if needed. Selfish it may be, but Yuki needed a few days to understand if she was alive or if she was just an animated machine now.
The claws, a long and elegant instrument of killing, slid from Yuki’s fingers. No longer were they made of keratin, instead, metal could be seen even with the naked eye. Yuki’s claws were always sharp, but if master Ingo is to be believed, her new claws have cutting edges only ten molecules thick, similar to armor piercers-type knives but at the same time far more durable.
"Kick in the direction of target," Alpha nodded at the wooden cutout, "No, stay there you. Just jump and kick. With all your might."
Yuki did just that. She jumped, surprised and happy at being able to move with such ease. The wolfkin made a full roundhouse kick, slicing through the air with her leg, forcing her leg, and unsure of what should happen. The wooden cutout cracked, splitting in two and smashing against the wall, while Yuki landed, looking at this destruction in surprise.
"The air," Alpha explained. Yuki scratched her temple, and Alpha sighed, "At ease. You are now strong enough to propel the air forward, making a projectile out of nothing. Make sure to take care when you will fight to reclaim your rank from Tiny."
"I won’t," Yuki shook her head, showing her claws to Alpha, "With these, I am bound to kill someone."
"Coward."
Yuki never properly saw Alpha’s move. The warlord stood next to a broken figure. Her left arm became a blur, raising and making a thrust with the horrifying claws, sending forth air that hit the wolfkin in the chest and flung Yuki backwards, smashing her against the wall. Yuki blinked in surprise, sliding onto the bed.
"Enough!" Hekanta jumped in front of the warlord, "I…" Hekanta shuddered, seeing how Alpha played with the claws before her face.
"If you continue to upset the patient, we will report you to the higher-ups." Marco calmly said, coming next to Hekanta and putting his hand on her shoulder and trying to stand before her.
"Will you, medics?" Alpha asked, still playing with her claws.
"Yes!" Hekanta angrily threw off Marco’s hand from her shoulder, pushing herself closer to the warlord and looking up in her eyes. Yuki saw a flicker of animal horror in Hekanta’s eyes—horror mixed with determination, "Hit if you want, but first listen! Yuki is in my care, and you put me in charge of this hospital. Either obey my decisions and let me save your people, or fucking kill me and be over with this, because I will not stand and let you maul our troops!"
"She isn’t mauled, medic." Alpha pointed a claw at Yuki.
It was true. Yuki was happy, if nothing else. She felt a little bit of pain after being smacked against the wall, and with this pain came a sense of relief. She can feel! She was alive!
"I will obey your rules, medic. If you are burning with energy so much, come to the command room at three o'clock, I need someone to help me during the meeting."
"Ma’am! Alpha," Yuki jumped off her bed, quickly forcing herself to be casual at a first hit of fear, "I am sorry, you said that Blaguna’s cub is in this fortress. Can I speak with him or her?"
"Impossible," Alpha lifted a claw, stopping Yuki mid-sentence, "I know that you won’t hurt him. I trust you, Yuki. The boy is ten years old, one of the first Blaguna’s cubs. His mother connected electrodes to his brain, upon moving a muscle, a special machine released a jolt of energy that sent a spark of pain through his body. He was in such state for years and never learned how to speak. As you can imagine, he is quite mad and his muscles are atrophied. We are currently arguing with Iterna about whether or not they can fix him or if we should simply send him to the wyrms to erase his memory. Iternians argue against this, the soft fools."
Alpha left the room, allowing the medics to check Yuki’s pulse and help her clean herself. A nurse came in, cleaning her bed. Dumbfounded, Yuki sat on her bed, resting her head on the knuckles. She expected her own fate to be the worst. She felt her breathing speeding up at the horror of what Blaguna could have done with Sly and others. Or with her...
"Yuki," Janine said, coming inside the room. The pack rarely left Yuki alone nowadays. She found it impossible to leave the room, ashamed of what the shamans or other wolfkins would think about her, so Sly, Janine, Sonya, and Aranea all went to check up on her, "How are you feeling today?"
The warlord’s crude voice sounded alien, so strange it was to hear care and worry in her voice.
"Better, warlord," Yuki stood by attention, hating herself for the fear of leaving this room, "What will happen with the dungeons beneath us?" She asked, wishing to change the subject away from herself.
"Hah," Janine chuckled, coming to a wall and looking at the morning light outside, "It took some persuasion, but I made it!"
"Sorry? I am not sure that I know what you mean…"
"Dresgen will be one of the largest cities in the future. Its medical facilities are excellent, but there is one thing that is missing," Janine smiled broadly, "Mental wards. I’d imagine Blaguna would tear off her hair, knowing that her former torture prison will be used to help people. Sure, it will take years to find specialists and rebuild the place, true, yet the decision is final. The Dynast contacted Iterna to hire people, if everything works out, they will send personnel who will help and train the doctors who will work here."
Yuki smiled back to her warlord, enjoying the idea of sticking one last middle finger to Blaguna and her legacy.
"Anyway, have you called Sly today?" Janine asked offhandedly, "Or are you two fighting?"
"Nothing of sort," Yuki scratched behind her back, feeling her skin turning red, "It’s… I just need some time for… to figure out who I am now."
"Sure, take it," Janine nodded, raising her good arm and looking at her paw. Her fingers were trembling, trying to catch something unseen, "It’s better to say something while you have a chance. Sly and the others are in no danger, but time is like sand. It slips through our fingers, escaping us, and at the end, we end up regretting all the things we never said to our loved ones. Don’t be like.... Say what you feel while you can, Yuki." Janine turned around, leaving the room.
The wolfkin sit back on the bed, reaching out for the terminal with a hesitated paw. Entering his number, Yuki waited for a few moments, making sure that Sly couldn’t answer at this time. She was on the verge of putting down the portable terminal.
Screw it. Yuki decided. Janine was right—no more leaving anything for the later: "Sly? Yuki’s here. Sorry for being an ass and escaping you recently. Don’t take it as an excuse for not eating properly, kay? Anyway, I wanted to say thank you for helping me be whole again and… I love you. You asked if you and I can hook up, the answer is yes, if you’re up to the challenge."
