Rat Rebellion 11
#11 of Rat Rebellion
The monster question comes up again, and the plan comes closer to being fulfilled.
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Rat Rebellion
Chapter 11
By Draconicon
They had until the end of the week. That was not enough time to come up with a fake list, let alone a real list, but that was fine. Neither Anastus nor Lidochka had ever planned on giving up even a list of volunteer rats for the King to kill. They were in the governor's mansion to take the King and end the existential danger to their species that the royal fox posed. Once he was gone, then everything else was going to fall into place.
And with the help of Aeliana, the chief vixen of the King's royal guard, that moment was getting closer and closer.
Anastus pulled back from the latest convert of the guards, grunting as he felt the pleasure of his orgasm fading with the residual anger and angst of the moment coming back. He shuddered to himself, shaking his head at the spasming fox that he had just fucked to the edge of orgasm and then over. The sheets were stained, marked with the pleasure of the bastard that had come expecting to rut the rump of a rat, who had been broken instead.
He knew that the fox would be back to normal in short order, and would not be a threat before or after that moment. Turning, he met Aeliana's eyes, panting softly as she continued to stare judgingly at him.
"You hate me, still?" he asked.
"...Yes."
"But you'll still do what you're told?"
"...Yes."
"Then that's all that matters." He took a deep breath, shaking his head. "Think me a monster all you want. We've been thinking that about you for years."
She didn't respond to that. He wondered if she could. He wondered if it mattered.
"Get him out of here. How many more?"
"No more than ten," she said.
Ten. Ten more guards that might stand between him and the King, ten more that might be a danger. That shouldn't have been a problem with so many already on his side, but he didn't want there to be even a chance of Jovian getting away. They had one chance at taking him down, one chance to bring him to their side with a forced conversion. If that chance slipped away, it wouldn't be just him and Lidochka dying. It'd be everyone, from the foxes that had been turned to their side to the various slaves across the kingdom that had no idea of what had happened here. The possibility of rebellion throughout the kingdom could not be allowed to come to fruition; the King would see every rat dead, no matter the danger to the kingdom's economy without its labor force.
That was why they had to do this right. He would have to speed this up; they were coming close to the end of the week, and if he wasn't ready by then, the King would take steps. He grunted, shaking his head.
"Bring me another tonight. I'll...I'll take care of them."
"Say it properly. You're going to rape them, and break them," the vixen said.
Anastus wanted to lash out, but he knew better. That was bait, something to make him angry, something to make him stupid. She wanted him to do something like that, wanted him to lash out and deprive himself of a tool, he shouldn't wonder. Had to be better than that, had to be better than that.
Have to be better than them, and have to be better than...
The rat shook his head, waving his hand. Aeliana took the slowly-waking fox from the bed, leaving Anastus to his own demons as he sat down on the edge of the bed.
Monster. That word kept coming back, and it kept coming back pointed at him. It wasn't like there wasn't enough blame going around. The foxes had pushed them to this point, turning him and all the other rats to slaves. They had been kept that way, trained to be meek and willing for generations. That was just part and parcel of what the foxes had done to them, making them accept their purpose as rape-sluts, as labor, as whatever the foxes wanted them to be. Their entire species had been treated as nothing more than the most basic of meat-slaves, and there was no denying that.
At the same time, they were doing something pretty horrible in response. He, himself, had raped no less than six different foxes before coming to the governor's mansion, and he knew that he'd have to do even more before they took the King. At that point, it would be down to either him or Lidochka to convert Jovian and bring him to their cause.
Probably him. Lidochka would just kill him.
The rat stared at the wall for a moment, then slowly leaned forward, pressing his hands to his face. Were they that bad, at this point? Were they falling this far, to think of murder that calmly?
What are we becoming?
Monsters. That was the word, and much as he'd like to protest, it really wasn't the wrong word. Not anymore.
Just have to make it count. Just have to make it count.
He needed air. With the guards that had been converted so far, there was no reason not to leave his quarters. Those that were converted outnumbered those that weren't, and he could just...he could wander. He could trust to luck for that much, at least.
He walked out of the room, his bare feet tapping out a soft clicking rhythm on the floor, and his cock swung between his legs as he walked down the hallway. Every step was a reminder of the difference between his species and the foxes, and the differences that they were forced to take further just to have a chance. The foxes walked lightly, while he and all other rats walked with heavier steps, their muscles and bulk meaning that they were just that much louder. The foxes moved with swiftness, almost leaping from place to place, while rats had to run with a lumbering sort of charge in comparison.
It was made worse with the transformation that Florus had inflicted on him. He was bigger than any rat ever should have been, but that transformation, as well as its other consequences, were the only things that gave him a chance here. The only thing that gave them a chance.
He was running from what he had become, but there was no way that he could embrace it. To do that, he would become more like Lidochka, and that was something that he couldn't do. Not now, perhaps not ever. She lived by hate; he was trying to keep his hate from consuming him.
He realized, belatedly, where he had ended up. Not in the gardens, not even towards the walls of the palace, but at the guest quarters. Specifically, at the door to where Cassia had been housed for her stay. Anastus knew that, as a slave, he was not allowed in this room; no rat was, unless they were explicitly summoned.
It didn't matter. She was already broken. He stepped inside.
The vixen was in the middle of undressing, bare from the waist up. She turned, her eyes widening as he stood in the doorway. Anastus felt a twitch go down his shaft, but no more than that.
"I'm coming in," he said, shutting the door behind him.
"So you are."
"You are...expected?"
"The King wishes to speak with me. To offer condolences, or so he says."
"...I see. When?"
"Tonight. Some time from now. Monster."
She said it as if expecting to get a reaction from him. He didn't give her one. Instead, he stepped away from the door, studying her room and comparing it to his own.
Rats were never given much, and even here, where all rooms were lusher than they were in other palaces, the rooms of the rats were meager. A single chamber, with nothing more than a bed, and he knew that he was lucky to have that. The walls had been unadorned, save for idle scratches, and the door lacked a lock, with nothing to illuminate the room save for what he managed to beg from the servants.
This, in contrast, was a room of opulence. The walls were lined with paintings, and there was a dressing mirror and curtain at the far end of the chamber. Two doors led off, one open to lead to the bedroom, the second closed but doubtless leading to the personal chamber pot. To one side was a sofa, lushly adorned with pillows, and on the other side, a bookcase that was likewise lined with books too perfectly aligned with one another to ever be read.
She had a gown set off to the side, one that she likely intended to change into. He ignored it, walking to stand at her side. Cassia didn't back down; he doubted that she ever entirely would, even broken to being a slave as she was.
Shaking his head, he lifted one hand to her breasts. Just touching her reminded him of how he'd changed his mind, how he ended up dosing her to make her willing to be fucked, and then waited. He remembered how she had refused to break, and how he had been forced to rape her to turn her into a tool of the rebellion. He remembered so many things.
"So, monster." Not rat anymore, but monster. "Are you going to rape me again? Careful, or the King might suspect you are no dumb creature any longer."
"I never was," he muttered.
"You were. All of you were. The only reason that you're a threat now is because one of us made you better than you deserved to be, but no less a monster for that."
"Shut up."
Her jaws clicked together, and he almost wished she could defy him. He wanted to be angry. He was justified in his anger, he knew that, but he wanted her to lash out, wanted her to give him a reason to hit back.
It would be stupid. It would give the King something to worry about. It would -
It would do all kinds of horrible things to their cause, but it didn't matter. In that moment, he wished for it, and it was only because she was smart enough not to give it - or was too much in his control to give it - that he didn't fuck over their cause right then and there.
Dropping his hand from her breast, he brought his eyes back to hers. She shivered, some of the potion's forced arousal likely still there. Certainly, her nipples were still more than hard enough to suggest that she was in the mood. He could have fucked her, too, taken his pleasure. It would have been another rape, but he could have, and it would have felt good.
Instead, he pulled back. He walked around her. He looked in the mirror.
There was no physical difference from what he saw now compared to the rat that had come off Florus's experiment table all those days ago. He was no bigger, no more monstrous, no more evil-looking than he had been back then, but it didn't matter. The monstrous things that he had done were still there, had still been carried out.
He couldn't walk away from that. He couldn't deny that he had done horrible things to get them this far.
The vixen grabbed his shoulder.
"Whatever you do to the King, it changes nothing," she said. The order had apparently faded. She kept going. "Even if you kill him, Monster, the rest of the kingdom will see what you and your species are. What the rodents always were. Beasts. Monsters. Things that we don't need."
"You always did."
"Not anymore."
"..."
"We'll find a way forward without you. We'll get rid of everything that you did, everything that you made. Monsters like you -"
"Monsters like me?"
Without thinking about it, he grabbed her hand and whipped her around. She gasped, hitting the wall with a thump. He was on her a second later, pinning her to the wall with an arm to her throat, keeping anything else from getting out of her. She could barely breathe with him standing over her, he knew that. A little more pressure and her windpipe would snap, her head rolling back...
And he kept her there, allowing her just enough air to stay conscious, just enough oxygen to look him in the eye and understand what he was saying.
"Think about who started all this...think about what you're saying. You don't need us? You don't need slaves? Then why keep us, hmm? Why keep us down there? You don't need us, so you'll kill us. That's your decision.
"Who's the monster here? The one that has been beaten down all their lives, or the one that decides that the minute their pets snap at them they need to be put down? I think I know the answer to that."
"Nnngh..."
"I've done...horrible things." Anastus shook his head. "I did. I have. And I will do more...but at the end of it all, that's to stop it from getting worse. And at the end of it all...I'll deal with it."
"Monster...you'll just get worse...and worse..."
"It takes a monster to survive this," he muttered. "A person never could. A person would have broken, cracked the first time that they were beaten down, when they were forced to watch one of their friends die. A person would snap apart, would be a dead shell walking around. A monster can survive. A monster can change things. And if I have to be a monster to change you, to change what you foxes have done, then that's what I'll be.
"And when I'm done...when I'm done, I'll make sure that nobody else has to be. The monsters will be taken care of...you...and me."
He slowly pulled his arm back, shaking his head. She slumped down, coughing and gasping, rubbing her neck. Her throat fur would keep any bruises from showing, he was sure. He stepped away from her.
"Go on, meet with the King tonight. This will be handled by the end of the week. You will tell him none of this."
"..."
"Well?"
"...You won't tell me...to stop calling you that?" Cassia asked.
"...Call me what I am. My own ghosts do the same."
He turned on his heel, walking out of her room and back down the corridor. There were things that needed handling, and things that would go too far if he stuck around. Cassia, for all her horrid behaviors, might yet prove useful again. He needed to keep her around, just in case of...
Just in case.
He made his way back to the quarters Lidochka had taken for herself, avoiding the guards and the fox servants of the household. Not that they were true servants, really, but rather overseers of the slaves. They barely noticed him, sneering at the naked rat that wandered their halls, but went about their business otherwise. He ignored them, in turn, knocking on the female's door.
"Enter," she said.
Pushing the door open, he found her with blood on her claws and a guard that didn't look like he was doing too well on her bed. She was wiping her fingers clean on rags that looked like they were getting ready to be tossed in the fire, ignoring him as he stared at the mess.
"He'll recover," she said.
"Recover."
"Hmmph. More's the pity."
"...Why?"
"Why the pity, or why will he recover?" the albino rat asked.
"...I think that's all the answer I need."
"What do you want, Anastus? I'm busy."
Glancing at the fox on her bed, seeing the cuts along his chest and arms and hips, he could imagine that she was busier covering her tracks than anything else. Every time he saw what she did, every time that he was reminded of her anger, he came right back to the fact that he could not trust her forever. Perhaps not even for long, if this was how she was going to take their mission.
Monsters...
Rats like Lidochka were the reason why Cassia could call them monsters...except that he had gone along with it. He hated the foxes nearly as much, now...
But you can still think. You still TRY.
There might not have been so many regrets, but he still held out, and he still had a sense of guilt. That, he supposed, was where he needed to keep his attention. If he ever lost that, if he ever started seeing himself as being owed this pleasure, this anger, this revenge, then he would be near the point of no return.
"I'll leave you to it...but make sure that they aren't obviously injured. We need to be quiet about this, remember? We can't just have them figuring this out when their guards come 'round all marked up. If the King discovers what we're doing, if he figures it out because someone's -"
"I can take care of it. Let me do it my way, and you do it your way. Or did you already forget how it felt to have someone raping you?"
"..."
"Get back to work, Anastus. We both have work to do."
"Yes...yes, we do."
He turned to leave, though not without giving the gasping fox a final glance. Lidochka believed that he would live through the night. Anastus wasn't so sure.
Monsters. They were monsters, but even if they had to become something like this to survive, what would happen when they no longer had the foxes trying to take them down? What would happen when the monsters no longer had something to hunt them?
Then I suppose we hunt ourselves...
There was something there. He'd have to sort it out later, though. He had work to do.
The End
Summary: The monster question comes up again, and the plan comes closer to being fulfilled.
Tags: M/M, M/F, Rape, Conversion, Monster, Nudity, Rat, Fox, Series, Responsibility,