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Finally, a continuation. I know I said it would be 2 parts - in reality, there will be 3. I'm SO GOOD at math.

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A tremendous change in flux brought the research team's attention to the center of the room. The senior professor, Dr. Treffenger, raised an eyebrow. "It seems he is awake. I'm curious, Scale Master Ravi: how was it that he was able to destroy eight Balancers without suffering a scratch, while I and three of my research students can keep him properly restrained?"

The one-eyed ocelot bristled, but did not let anger show in his voice. From his position on the observer's balcony, he answered with a cool aire about him. "As previously stated, Sir, he took them by surprise, and we were simultaneously undermined by the girl, who was making use of the Sciences in a way that has never been seen here before." Ajit, dutifully taking measurements of the body before him, suppressed a snarl at the scratchy tone. Fools.

From the opposite balcony, High Equilibrial Raj projected his old, but sonorous voice into the room. "Explain again the method of his entrance, Scale Master."

Ravi sighed, but dutifully recounted, once more, what his dying soldier had told him when they were found. Ajit's ears perked up. He had not heard this, yet. "As it was reported, the girl, Krishma, somehow cast a powerful magical shield about the entire Solitary Abyss. It defied all attempts to solve its mechanisms. The Balancers there demanded that she reveal the codes to break it. While she was being threatened, Krishma began... well, she..." He trailed off and looked down at the beast, who was snarling, but unable even to open his jaws. He lay naked and paralyzed; mortified.

"What happened next, Ravi?" the Equilibrial pressed. "What prevented your Balancers from stopping her, or from even learning the method of allowing him in?"

"Well... as I have said, she began singing." Those who had not yet heard the story jumped in place. Even Ajit flicked his ears towards the speaker.

"Outside of a social or scientific conext?" asked Treffenger, with the beginnings of anger etched onto his wrinkled, white features.

Ravi nodded. "One of the survivors appeared to be delirious, but he claimed that it was the most beautiful sound he had ever heard." The room went silent with cold fury and self-righteous disbelief. Ravi's gaze became distant as he repeated his soldier's last words. "He said to me, ‘Sir, it was like the universe itself was singing. She could have brought the Equilibrial to tears. We just stood there and listened. I started weeping, Sir. We knew it couldn't be good, but we couldn't stop her, Sir. Then, there was this huge wind, and a column of smoke and fire, spinning all around like a vortex, just grew and grew out of the ground near her feet and we all started to get away, but she was still singing, Sir. Singing like all the universe was singing to us, and even though so many of us died, I think we died happy because of that, Sir.'" He cleared his throat into the stillness of the room. "He passed away shortly afterwards."

In the silence that followed, Treffenger suddenly barked out, "Singing is to be kept by those few, uncivil, base, morons who swarm the streets in black!"

"Hold your tongue, Professor," said the Equilibrial with a raised, open palm. "All members of the Society have their functions. You know we keep the artists under close watch at all times."

"Your Highness...?" the Scale Master asked uncertainly, looking significantly at the three students in the room. Ajit had pretended not to notice, but Ishan had a perplexed look on his face. The tremendous, domed room they were in suddenly seemed full of a clammy mist, to Ajit. So at least that, of all Rishi had told him, was true. They suppressed the arts by infiltrating them. He thought it must have been hard to consistently choose Balancers who would not give in to the Bohemian ways of the artists.

Then, as all heads turned to the Equilibrial, Ajit felt as though the wizened old lion was looking directly into his eyes. "It is better that they know that, now. They may have been frightened by Krishma and Rishi's rash actions yesterday." He addressed them directly, his warm voice resounding through the chamber. "Are you not comforted, knowing that we are often aware of individuals such as these and suppress their revolutionary efforts?"

Ishan and the other worker, a badger by the name of Sayan, nodded quickly. Ajit moved his head more slowly before responding with them: "We are, your Highness." They immediately got back to work. Ishan and the badger, who was a Biochemist, were trying to trace the magical residues on the wolf monster to obtain a more accurate account of the battle. Ajit was using calipers to measure the creature's dimensions and also sketching him from various angles where he lay on a circular pedestal. Now that his eyes were open, even though it was also his duty to put the beast into a coma-like sleep after this initial awakening, he made his way to his head to begin sketching those eyes. The creature's legs, arms, and muzzle were all bound by magically-imbued leather straps in addition to less visible spells. Ajit found it ironic that the very skill that should have had him rotting in a prison cell and waiting on a death sentence was what he was using to study the subject "according to strict and regulated protocol developed many years ago." He also now knew, thanks to the Equilibrial, that his readings and actions had not gone unnoticed. Why would his Highness want to warn him of that, though?

"Continue with your recounting," the pale-furred, majestic feline invited his subordinate. Ajit suddenly felt a prickling sensation along the back of his neck as his hackles raised in realization and the associated fear. It occurred to him that his Highness was doing this for the students' education. The officials had already heard the story. That was why the fox hadn't seemed to be able to get away from authority figures since he and Christi were found. He was suspected of illegal action, yesterday. Depending on how much the survivorshad seen, if the Scale Master was allowed to finish his story, Ajit would be taken off the research team in a heartbeat. He couldn't help glancing up at the Equilibrial in fear. The magistrate was focused entirely on the ocelot.

The fox glanced at Sayan and Ishan. Their eyes were closed while they continued notating their findings as they used their heightened skills to trace what were known as "flux residuals." These were tiny, nearly imperceptible signs left on the spellcaster's and target's skin when magic was used on another human being. They marked the entering and leaving of the Divine Sciences and deteriorated over time. Pretending nothing was wrong, Ajit wrote notes on his spiral-bound book and peered closely at the beast's muzzled jaws, lifting his lips to get clear pictures of the teeth, even as he felt the muscles in those lips pull back in an angry snarl and could see the eyes as they began to glow red, glaring at his impassive face.

The old general was speaking again, this time describing what he knew of the battle and of how the creature turned on Krishma even though she was pleading for her life and insisting she hadn't brought him there, that he had been stolen from his homeland to be made into a slave, as a trial run. He also mentioned that Nero had spoken in a language the Balancers did not recognize, even though he appeared to be conversing with Krishma.

Ajit grabbed Nero's muzzle as though trying to move it around to get a better view of the various scars there and pushed it down on the pedestal, facing him. Nero growled in indignant frustration and fury, but Ajit just fixed him with the same, cold eyes as always and tapped his notebook hard with his pencil, drawing the wolf's attention in that direction. The fox prepared a weak sedative and fed it into the wolf's body to make his sudden calm and confusion more understandable.

The ocelot's gruff voice cut into his thoughts, suddenly. "...and then, he said it was like the air itself opened up..."

Ajit widened his eyes, noticing something in his sketches, and looked fearfully at the straps binding the arm closest to him. He looked at Treffenger, terrified, and put his finger on one of the drawings. "Professor, I think- no!" he screamed as one of the creature's tremendous arms ripped free of its bonds and snatched the small fox, easily trapping him against the monster's chest by his neck. Ishan barked furiously, a type of rage entering his features that the fox had never seen before. "Ruta!" Ajit couldn't breathe, feeling as suffocated by the black and red fur around him as the muscles closing his windpipe. He began mentally flipping through ways of providing himself with oxygen, but nothing came to mind. It was then that he rethought his plan of action, but it was too late for that. He had to go with what was available. He only hoped his mental training at Rishi's and Krishma's hands had been worthwhile.

Every scientist in the room had instantly prepared a different type of magic, but the Equilibrial held up his hand and called, "Hold fire." The others in the room looked at him strangely.

"But Sir, he may kill the youth." Three voices expressed the same concern, in different words. Only Sayan had the presence of mind to notice and record the glowing sigil on Nero's shoulder.

"He will do no such thing while I am here. Or do you doubt my strength?" Those in the room turned their heads aside in obeisance, but refused to let down the magic they had gathered.

With a graceful movement of his hand, the Equilibrial unlocked the muzzle binding Nero's mouth to let him speak. Without wasting a second, Nero bit hard into Ajit's neck, making him drop his notepad and cry out as blood was spilled, but his throat had not been punctured. He stopped struggling, realizing the futlity of it. It took only a second to secure Ajit in this new vice and when it was done, Nero thrashed his free arm over to the binding on his other arm.

High Equilibrial Raj was not to be trifled with, though. The anti-magic bonds had not been severed, so it was a simple matter for the old lion to flicker his fingers and immobilize the arm. Nero immediately tightened his jaws, eliciting a choked cry from Ajit. Ishan started forward, but the thin mouse who was his superior held him back with a surprisingly strong paw and shook his head. "Let the Equilibrial handle this."

"Nero," the magistrate said, looking directly into the beast's glowing eyes, "you have made your terms clear. Would you be willing to listen to mine? As much as I would like to preserve this young man's life, as a rational being, I will feel just as content to let you kill him and thus submit yourself to torture at the good Scale Master's capable hands while you are bound, immobile, unintelligible, and blind, left with naught but your perceptions of sounds and sensations so that you can hear yourself screaming as he tears you apart from the inside out over, and over, and over again." The perfect calm with which that was spoken sent shivers down the students' spines. Even Treffenger seemed unnerved.

"Your Highness, although I approve of your actions, he is a foreigner and a barbarian; how will he understand you?" asked one of Ravi's subordinates, standing with him.

Sayan spoke up timidly. "If- if I may respond, your Highness?" The old lion nodded and gestured graciously. "I've... c-confirmed that K-Krishma was communicating w-w-with... with N- Nero. Ah, it's- it's new technology, ah, Sirs. And, and Madams. Translation p-patches... on his ears and m-m-mouth should m-make him in- intelligible, t- to us... that is. She placed them... before he, ah, turned on her."

The Equilibrial nodded approvingly. "Excellent forensics, Sayan." The badger flushed mightily and bowed his head.

"Thank you, your Highness!"

Ajit let out anothing cry, to remind them he was there, struggling to breathe. He could feel the teeth cutting through his skin as he lay paralyzed. It felt as though one of the tips was an impossibly small distance from the membrane of his throat, itself. A little more pressure, and he would choke on his own blood... why wasn't the High Equilibrial just freezing the rest of the beast? Ajit had thought the thing had understood, that if he acted appropriately, he might...

He suddenly felt himself moved up and down as Nero nodded accession to the old man's words. Raj smiled graciously. "I'm glad. My terms are these: if, when you release our student, you can demonstrate yourself to be reasonable and coherent, I will not replace your muzzle. You will be able to communicate with those studying you and help us understand better your appearance in our prison, your unexpected stature, and the strange quality of your magic. Obviously, we will replace the binding on your arm; you surely understand that necessity."

Nero continued to glare, but Ajit could have sworn he felt the beast's tongue gently caressing the back of his skull. Was he reassuring him, or tasting him? Either way, he could feel his warm blood trickling down his neck as the monster nodded yet again. When the tongue moved to those droplets, Ajit's suspicion was confirmed. Left in here, this beast would try to eat him.

A moment later, the pressure released and Ajit immediately twisted himself off his captor, to fall, gasping, to the floor, one hand snatching at his notebook. No one could know what he had drawn there. He stood, and bowed deeply to the Equilibrial, preventing Ishan from approaching him too near, although the wolf had rushed to his side. "Thank you, Most Divine," he said, gasping, before taking a moment to control his voice. The next words were even. "More so than previously, I owe you my life."

The High Equilibrial nodded. "Indeed," he intoned, then addressed all those present as Ishan gently drew Ajit from the examination table. "Now may be a beneficial time to leave the subject time to consider the words he will soon have to utter, and to take recess from this excitement. Thank you all for your work. Professor Treffenger, instruct your students as commendably as you have thus far. I take my leave of this place." The old lion bowed respectfully to the room, and those present all bent to one knee as he left the room.

"Are you okay?" Ishan asked as they rose to their feet.

Ajit felt at his neck with a few fingers and drew away blood, eyeing it with a grimace. "It'll heal."

"Do you want an antibiotic?" Sayan asked.

The fox nodded. "Yeah, thank you." A moment later, he felt a mild burning sensation on the wounds. With a few minor pulses from his own knowledge of Biology, he sealed them, leaving his body to do the finer, capillary repairs.

"Students," the mouse said, drawing their attention.

"Yes, Sir?" they each answered.

"Excellent work today." He tossed a glance at where the ocelot had stood. "I know it is no fault of the Scale Master's that his Balancers could not withstand this creature's assault; we have not seen real combat in a great while. But, I want to commend your individual abilities to restrain Subject N."

"Thank you, Sir," they responded.

"We are dismissed for now, but I want to begin questioning him tomorrow, early, now that we know he can be understood. To the best of my knowledge, Neuroscience has yet to perfect the truth serum. Sayan, you seem to have some knowledge of that area; have there been any recent developments?"

The scholarly badger looked at his notebook, even though there was no reason for the requested information to be there. He just didn't want to look Treffenger in the eye. "Ah, n- no, Sir. Not that I know of... at least."

The old mouse nodded. "Fine. We will meet at eight tomorrow to begin questioning."

"Sir... if I may make a suggestion?" Ajit said quietly. He had been thinking about something, and knew the dangers of presenting it. Rarely did nonscientific thinking go without severe reprimand, especially from Treffenger. This was the man who had sent Krishma to her death - or tried to. He was an easy man to anger, and a dangerous one.

When the professor nodded, he continued, likewise not meeting the man's eyes. "I know it is not considered a... strictly scientific pursuit, due to the psychological focus..." He ignored the hard and frightened gaze Ishan swung around to him along with the gasping flinch from Sayan's direction and continued bravely on, into Treffenger's dead eyes. "...but the civilian police forces developed systems of interrogation some time ago, with alleged success in drawing assumedly accurate information from subjects. In browsing the University's library, I came across a volume or two on the subject, if you think that may be helpful."

A very tense silence hung in the air of the vertigo-inducing heights of the room as Ajit refused to back down from the mouse's eyes, which had been like granite since the word "psychological." The only sound for long moments was Nero's heavy breathing.

In a low voice, Treffenger asked him, "Are your own polygraphical skills not up to the challenge of detecting lies?"

Ajit's response came out quickly as his face flushed beneath his fur. "I believe that the only proper gauge of truth is an ongoing brain scan, based on my readings in neurobiology, which would not be possible without involving at least three experts in Neuroscience." A breath. "I also know that there were properly scientific comparative studies done using paired testing techniques to compare the alleged success of interrogative techniques against the use of neuroscientific and polygraphic techniques that allegedly found the civilian-led interrogations to be as effective or more, in some cases, in determining the later-assumed truth."

"Where might one find these articles?" the elder asked coldly.

Ajit's ears burned even brighter and his voice lost strength. "The authors have since been excommunicated and exiled, Sir. The few publications that printed their findings... have likely been burned."

Those words were allowed to resonate in the chamber for a moment before Treffenger responded. "That's a lot of alleging and assuming, Rutajit."

The fox's anger flared briefly and he held back a growl as he looked up at his instructor. "Yes, sir, it is." There was much more he wanted to add to that statement, but all of it would have gotten him excommunicated.

Dropping the subject like a bleeding fish, Treffenger looked at the other two. "You two, I would like you to prepare appropriate questions. I will administer them, and the three of us will maintain the polygraph. Ajit, administer to his functions before we arrive. You will observe and record." With that, the professor turned and left the chamber, with Ajit's glare burning holes in his back. That had been more successful than he had imagined it would be.

Ishan and Sayan let out a pent up breath of relief, and the wolf cuffed his friend on the back of the head. "You idiot," he sighed. "You are lucky as all hell he was in a good mood over outdoing Master Ravi. He let you off pretty easy, for that."

Ajit huffed angrily. "Right. Because cleaning up giant wolf shit at seven, which we could have any blinded freshman do, is ‘getting off easy.'" Sayan flinched at the expletive. He was an easily startled kid, apparently.

"You got your own hands in it, man." He shook his head. "You've got more balls than most, that's for sure, but use your head a little, too," he joked. He still looked worried, though. Ajit didn't like the look his friend had been giving him since he got away from Nero.

Sayan spoke up quietly as they started out. "I actually know some, um... odor-reducing techniques, if, if you want... I can show you."

Ajit flashed him a grin. "Thanks, but..." He exchanged a glance with Ishan, who had also started smiling. "I actually know some already. I did some, ah... ‘research,' when I was younger, with Ishan."

The badger's beady eyes widened and he clutched his books tighter. "You two... you did the Millstock High Stink Bomb?"

"And never got caught!" Ishan smirked, hi-fiving Ajit.

"There are still wards on the janitors' closet!"

Ishan held up a finger, wisely. "And our senses of smell are still damaged."

"It's why I'm a Biologist," Ajit happily explained. All the seriousness of moments ago had evaporated.

The badger was dumbfounded. "You covered the smell of dung for four weeks! I did the math when I was bored; it had to have taken you that long to get that..." He coughed, his cheeks reddening. "...volume."

Ajit bowed melodramatically in Ishan's direction. "Lupine brute force does count for something, when you need it all to hit the fan."

"Actually, it was about six fans, I think," Ishan corrected him.

"And a blender."

"Without a top, naturally."

"Naturally."

"We had to involve the kitchen staff somehow."

"You healed Puja's eye, right?"

"Yeah, but I did a crappy job of it. Someone else had to do clean-up."

"We did a crappy job of most things, that day."

"A lot of people were pissed off."

"On, you mean."

"Naturally."

The wolf bowed with equal silliness back at his friend. "We would have never pulled it off without vulpine ingenuity. Together, the two are unstoppable. But, Sayan," Ishan said inquisitively, "how did you figure that out just from what Rut said? We were probably the two least suspicious kids in that whole school."

They both looked at him expectantly. The badger blushed and adjusted his perfectly-stacked papers, and blushed. "Lucky guess, I guess. I mean, why else would someone know advanced olfactory manipulation at that age?"

The other two exchanged another look. "We've been flushed out!"

"By a crapshoot!"

"Oh, poop!"

"Dung!"

"Waste!"

"Fæcal matter!"

"Sewage!"

"Defecation!"

"Excretion!"

"Urine!"

"Piss!"

"... really, guys?" Sayan said, embarrassed by their antics.

They shut up for a moment. Then, in the dark night: "Shit!"

Sayan parted ways with them still a good distance from their own homes. Very few people were out at this time; it was mostly those tending the lamps and late-night exercisers among the softly-lit domes of shops and hive-like apartment complexes. In the darkness, with the combination of real flames and Physics-imbued lamps, the buildings seemed almost like fireflies. As soon as the badger was gone, Ishan pulled out his chalkboard. "I got this."

"You don't want to walk? It's, like, a quarter of a mile."

"We're too lazy to walk a mile in the mornings, and classes don't even start ‘til late for either of us." The argument was weak and rushed, but Ajit counted it off to fatigue.

"Excellent point. Compute away, then."

A few moments later, they were hurtling through the air as before. There was little to talk about, and besides, they were both rattled from the day. After finding Krishma and knocking out Nero, Ajit had been whisked away to a tiny, solitary room with only a mute attendant to check his body and mind for wounds. Immediately afterwards, he had been questioned about the events, but refused to answer because, as he said, "I find myself greatly fatigued and in a bit of shock; it may take me some time to properly arrange my memories and experiences." He had told of Rishi's one-man assault on the prisons but not given the details, having known he would hardly be believed if he detailed the rat's unbelievable strength and dexterity with different sciences. Other than that, he had remained silent.

After a few hours of induced sleep, he had been awakened by the sciences and provided with artificial stimulant. At nearly the time he was to be questioned, his parents had appeared, demanding he be released and permitted to come home. His mother had greeted him with tears plastered on a face filled with loving rage. "Mom, I'm..."

"Get outside. Now!" she had barked, and his father had shrugged with a look that said, "You knew this was coming. Come on." They had left the jail without speaking to one another, the wardens still flustered by the previous night's occurrence and totally unprepared to deal with someone as angry as Vajra was at that moment. She whisked the three of them home on the wind and dragged Ajit into the kitchen by his ear. The first thing she did was slap him â€" twice â€" before wrapping him in a fiercely protective hug and bawling, "We thought you were dead!"

The young fox had cautiously returned the embrace, perplexed. "Dead? How much about this got out?"

His father answered. "We heard there had been a break-in at the jail, and word of a deadly battle spread around town. Even knowing it was probably a rumor, we panicked. We're disappointed in you, son. Why would you break into a jail?"

Ajit glared sardonically at the man, whose hard eyes flinched. "Really, Dad? I was led into the jail with my life on the line. I didn't ‘break in.' And I definitely wouldn't kill anyone to do it."

"Oh, Ruta, we were just so worried," his mother said somewhat more calmly than she had been. "To think that in a place like this, someone might have been murdered."

"Yeah," he answered with barely-hidden darkness, drawing away from his mothers. "Who would have thought?"

Both parents became concerned and tried to meet his eyes, which he refused them. His father asked, "So there was a murder?"

"I don't know how much I'm allowed to reveal. I think I saw something highly classified. I- I'm sorry."

"It's okay, Ruta," his mother said quickly, before his father could pry further. "We're just glad you're safe." She took his paw in hers. "Do you need to go back?"

"He should have natural sleep, first," his father insisted before he could nod his consent. "They said he was well-rested; I'm sure that meant they put him in a coma and called it rest."

Ajit nodded his thanks, then made his way to his bed. When he finally woke up, he was groggy, but there were school officials at their door, demanding he come to the University immediately and giving no explanation. Preliminary binding and examination of the unconscious wolf-beast had begun then and not stopped except for dinner and until the incident.

Back in the present, the two of them stopped at the intersection between their two houses. Ajit suddenly found himself choking in tightly-wrapped, thick, white fur. Ishan was squeezing him with all of the bigger wolf's considerable might, and it was making it difficult to breathe. The fox patted his friend's arm. "Hey... hey, Ishan... I'm dying a little, here."

"Sorry." He withdrew, a relieved smile on his face, letting the smaller fur gasp for breath. He still held Ajit's shoulders in his paws. "Sorry dude, I just... When that thing grabbed you, all I could think was that I had never really known life without you, and he sure as hell was not going to be the one to screw that up for me."

Ajit smiled, touched. "You softy. Something like that won't take me down, though." A cold thought touched on the fox's mind, for just a moment. Will he still think of me that way when he learns what I've learned to do? "Thanks, man. I'm glad you're there."

Ishan wagged once and let him go. "Damn it, I am a softy. I'm glad you're safe. See you tomorrow. Oh, and you did heal those marks, right?. Your parents'll think you and Christine were having a little late-night fun."

"Right. Because almost being executed for blasphemy is such a turn-on."

Ishan laughed and answered in a silly voice, _"Yes I need that guillotine action right now to get it up."

"Faster faster before my neurons stop working."

"Get some self-voyeurism before I stop blinking."

"Decapitation is the best fetish to get head to."

"Pun-gasmic!"

"Nrrrggh!"_

Doubled over with laughter, they parted ways, happy to have something to help them forget the horrors of the last thirty-six hours. Neither could possibly know how much they needed it. The weeks that followed would not be as kind.