FSE

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It had been going great. I had found love, and I had found family. Unfortunately it all fell apart one day. I sighed softly as the memories came slowly trickling back, not bothering to try and stop them lest they flood over my dwindling willpower.

Demi disappeared one day, and Simi waited for him, sitting outside the door to the compound in the chilly spring air. She didn't know where he'd gone. By the time we knew he had lied to us about coming back with more food, his trail was washed away by one of the fickle spring showers. We couldn't follow him. So we waited.

And then she left, too, with a catch in her throat and a swift hug goodbye, she told Wulf and I that she needed to find him. And so she went. We watched her from the doorway, my mate and I, and watched her until we could no longer see her through the trees of the forest surrounding the entrance to home.

Wulf became distraught. Simi was like a sister to him. He had tried to dissuade her, but she was as stubborn as I was when it came to matters of the heart. She told him she had to do this, and she told him that he would do the same if I was missing. And he would.

But he left. Without a goodbye. He was simply here one night, my arms entwined around his torso as I slept peacefully, and gone the next morning, my arms stretched out as if he had left without first disentangling me. It broke my heart. But I'd wait for him.

And I did.

Until Malevolent came.

I had heard a shout through the PA system at the entrance to the compound, and giddily rushed up to check who it was, not bothering to try and recognize the voice. Mistake number one. I opened the sliding door, and in sauntered a fox, about half a foot taller than I, male, with black all over him, except for his stomach and neck, those were a deep purple.

He had nine tails.

He called himself Malevolent, but insisted I called him Male, and so I did, thinking he might have been one of the other people who had lived here, though I had never heard of him beforehand. Mistake number two. Living with love and a home with family had dulled my senses of danger, and nothing seemed wrong. I had become trusting. Mistake number three. And three was all it took, really. Once he was inside, Malevolent whipped his tails around and before I knew it, I had become a captive. Someone came in after him, behind me, and put a bag over my head. I couldn't see, and the air smelled of chemicals and toxin. My senses became dull, and I could hear the warbled and distorted thing that I once knew of as conversing, but it sounded alien to me. My last thought before the world finally caved into the true black of unconsciousness was that I might not ever see Wulf again.

Part 2

I awoke in a dank place, opening my eyes slowly, the small amount of light hitting my retinas causing me to wince with the sudden stimulation. I must have been out for a long time, and I could feel it. My muscles were stiff, and I couldn't really get up very well, even when I tried to prop up my upper body using my elbows as support. I could hear a little, but it was all just garbled nonsense, whatever it was. I felt like I had cotton stuffed into my ears.

A blinding light shone above me, and having been laid on my back, it nearly caused me to go under once again as the overstimulation of my optic nerve made my brain overload after such a long time of pseudo-dormancy. Slowly, my irises shrunk and my eyes adjusted. It felt like time was slowly moving through butter...

I saw that fox above me, with a smug grin and an almost crazed look in his eyes, and I knew I was in for it now. I swallowed, trying to speak. I could feel myself changing from the tame lapcat that love had made into the feral feline that I was when I lived on the streets and in hiding all those years.

The first word came out as a small breath, an indistinct fwhoo of air leaving my lips as I desperately tried to communicate. I tried again, this time the attempt eliciting a small moan of pain from my figure, the strain on my vocal cords after such a long time of disuse seemingly thunderous inside my head.

"... whoo..." I groaned. I felt like hell, and I was still swimming through molasses.

The fox smiled that insane smile the deranged sometimes give you before they're about to kill you. "I'm Malevolent." He said, as if it were a matter of fact, in which case, it was.

"Wha... why?" I managed to gasp out, my head beginning to throb. Those were some nasty drugs he had made me inhale, my memory was coming back. I could still smell the toxic, pungent mix of sickly sweet and awful bitterness of it in the back of my throat, a small reminder of what I had been put through.

"Why? Why did I take you? Because you are the last." He said, speaking in a riddle I didn't quite understand.

"La..st of what...?" I was gaining better control over my body slowly, and I noticed I was bound, probably why I couldn't seem to get up no matter how hard I had feebly struggled earlier.

"Last of the Shadists." He grinned that grin again, and it made me sick to my stomach inside. How could someone even have that smile and not creep themselves out...? It was so... toothy...

"And?" I opened my eyes fully, my ears swiveling about my head as if they were tiny radars, trying to pick up on everything yet seemingly getting nothing but the fox's voice. I was in a soundproof room, apparently. Hence the garbled noise.

"And. You are the perfect test subject." Clearly he wasn't going to tell me I didn't ask for personally.

"For what?" It came out more of a statement than a question.

"For my next virus." He said, turning around and then turning back again with a heavy-looking syringe, filled with an iridescent yet strangely clear, deep purple liquid not unlike the fur that colored the fox's chest, neck, and stomach.

I felt my eyes widen with horror, my ears swivel back behind my head, as if I was cowering. He didn't mean... that virus, did he? The one that turned a third of the world into... into us, these anthropomorphic animals... did he? I hoped to whatever diety/deities/omnipotent vegetable that he wasn't telling the truth.

"I can see that you've already experienced my handiwork," he surmised, taking in my feline body structure. "But this one will be much better. I will make you into something new. Not an animal you have ever seen or heard of, not anyone for that matter, but you shall be glorious... the first of your kind, and if all works out well, definitely not the last. My crowning achievement, my entire work's perfection." His toothy smile widened until I was nearly certain that it would rip his face apart if he tried to smile any wider. It's a shame he stopped, actually.

I swallowed tiredly, thinking of what on earth would happen to me. I tried not to think about it after I had gone through the ideas of myself either a: exploding; b: becoming this terrible thing I couldn't even control of anymore; or c: something Wulf would never love. God, I would kill myself if I became someone that Wulf no longer loved... I would just... just... hate living so much that I would... I would end it.

His smiled faded and he saw the hurt in my eyes. He then shook his head as if he were apologizing, though I knew better, and he set the syringe down on the table in front of him. "You don't understand," he said, quite calmly. Too calmly for someone who's off his rocker. "This will turn you into the ultimate Influence user... other than myself, of course. It will help you, the last Shadist of your kind, be able to use your powers without the expenditure of your own life energy... It shall be glorious..." he picked the syringe up again and hovered it over my arm threateningly. "Any last thoughts? Not that you're going to die, of course. It's just that you might lose your sanity and I might have to kill you anyways before you kill me and destroy my lab."

I swallowed again, pausing before saying my one thought. "Please... tell Wulf that he is my everything..." I barely managed to choke out the last word, tears were threatening to spill over my face as I felt my heart feel as if it were about to burst. Malevolent nodded, jotting it down on a piece of paper, as if it wasn't important enough to remember. That was the final blow, and my resistance crumbled. I choked out a sob as I felt myself crying in front of this psychopath.

"Okay then, I'll tell him when I experiment on him next, after I see what this does to you. But don't worry, it won't be for another week or so." That meant he was here, and a new wave of grief washed over me as I thought of Wulf, his smiling eyes, his loveable personality... I thought of them being annihilated by the virus that Male had started to flow through his veins, changing him beyond recognition.

Male made an almost comical shrug with a careless roll of his eyes and said "Oh well! In you go!" stabbing my arm with the needle, depressing the plunger until all of the thick, dark purple liquid was inside of my bloodstream. I waited, terrified.

Nothing happened. Not yet. I could feel something inside of me, something that shouldn't have been there - something my body knew shouldn't have been there. But instead of destroying the intruder like it would any other thing, it welcomed it. I could feel my body accepting it into itself, allowing it to change me... I coughed out one last sob, a broken thing that left my mouth and dropped through the air, hitting the floor with a thud, never to fly. Hopeless.

And then I screamed, because I knew I'd never be me again. I would be a monster, something that no one would ever love, something incapable of receiving love. Because no one can love a monster like in Beauty and the Beast. No one.

First came the scales. Yes. Scales. They shot out of my skin like something on the other side hit them with a hammer in rapid succession, bursting through the skin of my outer forearms, going from my elbows to my knuckles. They weren't normal scales, in the traditional way of thinking. They were single scales, like plate mail, running down my outer forearms. They bled a little, their eruption from my skin summoning little pearls of blood from my flesh.

And then I felt my face begin to break, to shift, and change. I felt some of those plate mail scales shooting forth from my skin just below my eyes, and I watched with horror as my dark burgundy coat of fur and my light yellow underbelly began to both shift into a swirl of color, the red swallowing up the yellow and turning darker. I was covered in fur that was a terribly dark red, a red darker than any shade of red should be allowed to become without it first becoming either black or purple. A red no one wanted to call 'red' but was red anyways.

Then came the splitting headache, it felt like my skull was about to burst, and in truth, it did. In four places. I could literally hear my bones groaning and fracturing with the strain as I felt two horns surge out from near the crown of my head on opposite sides of the occipital plate and curve backwards and down, finally hooking back around to go slightly up and along my jawline until they looked almost like mandibles when viewed from the front. They didn't invade the space in front of my face.

As that was happening, I felt two more points of pressure at the top of both of my parietal plates, and two horns, almost looking like they should have belonged to an antelope or a gazelle, sprouted from my head, curving first slightly outwards, then inwards again. I felt the same plate-like scales sprout on the fronts of my shins, and I felt my footpaws getting wider, as if they needed to be more sturdy and more capable of providing balance. One good thing the scales on my arms and legs did do, however, was slice right through the bindings that were on me. So, naturally, I did what any transforming, once-was-a-cat creature would do. As I felt my claws elongate due to the change, I gave a ferocious swipe to Malevolent, catching his ear with the tip of the claw on my right hand. I heard a terrible sounding rrrip, and found half of his bloody ear hooked on my claw. He screamed in agony and backed away, exiting the room and locking a huge steel door behind him. I caught him off guard. He was afraid. And he was not invincible. Good.

I felt myself getting larger, more sinewy as my muscles flexed and relaxed rhythmically, my somewhat apparent build soon becoming more defined into what many would call sexy upon viewing. The hair on my head changed color from dark brown to an iridescent dark purple, almost black color, and it extended down my neck like to form itself into a mane-like shape, stopping at my collarbone in a nice little 'v' shape.

My tail suddenly felt as if it were on fire, and I groaned, slipping off the table as I not only grew at least half a foot taller, my bones popping and snapping at the rapid growth, but my tail suddenly split in two and got a lot fuzzier, resembling a tail that a squirrel might have, only double the amount of tails said squirrel would possess if it were in fact a normal squirrel. The fur on them was the same color as the rest of me, except for my new scale plating, which turned bone-white, as well as the horns on the top of my head, whereas the bottom pair remained as red and dark as the fresh blood that dripped from Malevolent's ear that was still hooked on my claw.

I could feel my shoulder blades bulging, as if they, too, wanted to reach their full potential. I groaned as my body creaked like an old house and soon, twin spikes burst forth from my back, eliciting a morbid scream from me and spraying the room with fine flecks of blood that were atomized as the force of whatever had ripped from my back had exited my body. I felt the new appendages slowly flex themselves, seeming to have a mind of their own before I felt what they were. The spiked limbs slowly unfolded into what were akin to the wings that wyverns had in storybooks, only they were not like arms, seeing as how I already had arms in the first place. I could control them; they folded nicely against my body, and the membranes they were equipped with creaked like new leather, yet were absolutely silent when folded against my back. They felt like they could take a beating, and they were strong, I could feel it. The spikes that adorned the joint where a wyvern or bat would have its thumb were wickedly sharp, also blood red, and prehensile, meaning if I ever attacked with them, I could angle them right so I could stab with maximum force without needing to worry about the angle of said stab.

I felt powerful. I was still in control. Smaller bony projections around my shoulders poked through the skin, letting forth small streams of blood as they extended about an inch from my body, only a few on each shoulder, bleached bone white like the scales and the two higher horns.

I felt my eyes sharpen, everything becoming focused in a seemingly bluish tint, and I held my left paw over my face, my paw pads stained pitch black as a night with no stars, and saw a faint blue glow emanating from what seemed to be where my eyes were. My claws also glowed faintly, but they glowed the same blood red that stained the lower horns and my claws themselves.

I felt something, some instinct; tell me it was over. Over. What else is over? My life is over. This is the start of something new.

I decided I was a new species, and gave said species a new name.

I am a Zanfis. The first of my kind. But please, call me Rogue.

Part 3

I walked around, testing my mutated form. I guessed it was a mutation, I mean come on, how could it not be...? I found it much to my liking. It was strong, it's senses were marvelous - I could hear someone on the other side of the soundproof room's wall sob softly, a noise of defeat - and I was fast. Much faster than before. I looked down and noticed for the first time that I wasn't wearing any clothes, and I was sporting a major hardon. I hadn't felt the change, but apparently a zanfis has an abnormally thick cock, much to my delight. It was at least ten inches long, four inches thick, and closely resembled a feline cock. It had small fleshy barbs at the tip and it was tapered, ending in a blunt point. I liked it. I liked it a lot. My balls swung heavily with every step I took, and my cock bobbed accordingly whenever my digitigrades paws touched the ground. I'd have loved to stay in that room and paw off, but I had a clumsy wolf, an idiotic human, and a frisky cheetah to save.

I inspected the door. It was solid steel, a few inches thick, locked from the outside, and swung inwards, so technically it would be harder to break down from the side I was on. A good thing to test my limits with.

I straightened myself, noticing with a cocked eyebrow that I stood at what I would guess to be just over seven feet, and raised my left paw, clenching it into a fist as I punched at the wall. The scales on my knuckles surprisingly took most of the force and it hardly felt like I hadn't hit anything, just stopped my arm from moving at a certain point. I removed my fist and there was a small dent in the door. Nearly imperceptible, but my newly improved eyesight picked it out easily. I wound my fist back and punched again, this time using a lot more force. I felt what would have been a bone-jarring impact but merely shook my paw a little and inspected the dent once more. There was a much larger one in its place now, and if my clanging on the door didn't alert Malevolent that I was up to something, he must have been deaf from my taking one of his ears. Oh well.

I thought of something new, unfolding my wings, I got down on all fours and braced myself, my claws digging deep gashes into the linoleum flooring as I struck out clumsily with my left wing. It threw me a little off-balance, even though I was braced, and the impact made a sharp metallic tang as spike met steel. I drew the wing back reflexively and inspected the dent yet again. There was a cone-shaped divot in it now, and then it hit me that I could just break down the fucking wall. I mentally facepawed myself, and somehow figured out how to make my eyes and my claws stop glowing.

I walked over to the wall right next to the door and started clawing at it, and then punching it full force, the scoring my claws did into the material seeming to help a bit as my fist went through the wall, and I reached over to the locking mechanism on the steel door and ripped it out of the wall as well, causing the steel door next to me to give an audible click and swing open easily.

I walked towards the door and heard a metallic whirring, instantly turning around and spotting a camera in the corner of the ceiling that was following me. It pissed me off for some reason, so I took the syringe that still held a small amount of the fluid that changed me, and some random medical instrument. I then deposited said medical instrument directly through the lens of the camera, and heard a satisfying snap as the thing broke. I then casually walked out of the steel door, my hardon having subsided and retreated into my sheath a while ago.

I turned in the direction that I had heard the sob, and looked down the hallway. There were a few doors on either side, but none of them were steel like the one adorning the entrance to the room I was in. I walked to the nearest one and turned the handle. Locked. I drew my fist back and punched through the flimsy wood and tore the door right off its hinges. Inside, there was a small and delicate-looking Simi, curled up in the corner and staring terrified at the monster that had just ripped the door that was locking her in clean off the wall. Her tail was curled about her, and her eyes were red and puffy, she had been crying a lot, recently, and as I took a step forwards, into the room (I had to duck to get through the doorjamb, mind you), she squealed, a short, feral sound that made some of the fur in my mane stand on end. She was afraid of me. Some sick, demented part of me that had changed with the vial of liquid took great joy in this, and I felt myself fighting a smile. I should have been mollified by what had just happened... Simi acted like I was going to hurt her. I would never... but then again, I didn't look like I used to. She truly didn't know who I was. I cleared my throat, prepared to use it for the first time since the change. It had an uncharacteristic rasping sound to it that I defeated on the second try.

"... Simi." I said, somewhat softly. She stopped whimpering in the corner and looked up at me. Her voice cracked when she responded.

"H-how do you kn-now my n-nam-me...?" She looked like she was about to cry again.

I sighed and sat down on the opposite side of the room as her, my twin bushy tails curling around me. They were awfully fluffy... I had to take a nap on those after I killed Male, rescued Wulf, and took one of Demi's kidneys for making Simi so worried when we got home.

"Do you really not recognize me...?" I looked at her, and I must have had some semblance of my old form because a small spark of recognition flickered in her eyes before she uncurled from the corner.

"W-wulf?" She looked at me, and her eyes reflected something like love. "Oh, what did they do to you? You poor thing! Ever since they took you last week, I've been worried sick... Are you okay? Do you remember the promise we made?" She looked so hurt, and I was curious, so I pretended to play along...

"What promise...?" I queried her.

"The one where, if something ever happened to Rogue, or if we both ran away... you and I could finally be together... and we can escape now! Look at you! You can do anything... Even... wait... Oh no..."

She must have noticed the tears in my eyes, they were uncontrollable. The one I loved; conspired against me with the person who I viewed as a sister... made a promise to her, to love her... to be rid of me... Why?

"Simi... I am Rogue... and now... I... I don't know what to think." Recognition dawned in her eyes and she suddenly reeled back, covering her mouth as her ears laid flat against her head. Her tail fluffed up and I could tell she was holding her breath, probably thinking: oh shit... he hates me now...

"So you and Wulf... you... he... left me? He left me for you, someone who already had someone to love... Someone who knew what it had felt like to have parents who loved them, and family who loved them, and... and..." The tears rolled down my cheeks freely, and I wanted to be angry... but no, the sorrow that had engulfed my heart was bottomless. As if I had been a stone dropped into a still pond. The ripples I had made, they would expand forever. Reaching all yet touching none, because there were none left to love. They had died when they left. Left me. Bitter. This is what it means to be bitter. To know no one loves you enough to even consider your feelings before stealing everything you ever had.

"I... I was happy... I had a home. I can never go back there, with you and him and Demi... I want to... to hit something... I want to scream and yell and... it wouldn't help anything... You killed me Simi. You killed me. And now I'm this. A species I had to name myself, because there are none like me." I sniffed and gave a small laugh, a mocking thing that could pierce even the toughest of emotional defenses. "Hah! Fitting, isn't it. I truly am alone, genetically and romantically! You have killed me. You... have killed me. Rogue doesn't exist anymore. He's dead. You killed him. There is blood on your hands, isn't there. Is it sticky and warm, is it fresh? Or has it been there for so long it has stained your fur black!? Well!? How long ago did you murder me in my sleep, Simi!? How long ago did you plan on stealing the one thing in my life that was truly mine!? Tell me!..." I was panting. I had stood up and started yelling at her, my voice having been changed along with my body, it was much deeper now, and every shout almost sounded like a roar bursting forth from my chest to hit her where it would hurt her. I wasn't sorry. I wanted her to feel the pain, to share the sorrow. I wanted it to break her... I wanted... I wanted revenge. I mentally slapped myself and told myself to calm down. No revenge. No yelling. Calm down. She was crying again, and that demented part of me cackled with glee at the chance to share the pain, to share the suffering...

"Are you sorry..?" I asked her. I wanted her to say no. I wanted her to say that she was in love and that she wouldn't let me have him back. It was what Wulf deserved, to have someone like that. Someone strong... I wanted her to say no... please, say no...

But she just nodded and let out a wail, apparently ashamed of herself for ever having done such a thing to someone in her family.

I was sad. I was depressed... I needed a new name. Rogue was dead. She killed him when she took Wulf away, because without Wulf, Rogue had nothing left to live for. The only things left of Rogue are his eyes, his memories, and his broken heart. I wear them now. But I'm not Rogue. Who am I...?

"Simi... who am I, if I am no longer Rogue...?" I sat back down and once again curled my tails around myself. She stopped crying again and looked up at me.

"You need a... a new name...?" She asked. Her eyes were wide with terror, it seemed. She should know I'd never hurt her, but the way I just exploded at her kind of dictates otherwise to her...

I nodded, a long, heavy sigh escaping my chest. It was a sigh of defeat. I could not win back myself, or another. No one was fit to be loved by a monster. No one.

"I can't name you, Rogue... I'm sorry..."

"Don't be. There's nothing anyone can do about any of this now. I'm stuck like this, and you have my mate. Rogue is dead. Yet I remain." I paused. "I'll be Reimen. My name is Reimen."

"It sounds like 'remain'." She said.

"That's because when all else that I once had is gone, I'm still here. It's the only thing that fits. Reimen remains." I paused. "Come on. Let's get out of here." I stood up, and she feebly crawled out of the corner and stood up as well. I led her out of the room and listened. I strained my ears, trying to hear anything that sounded like Wulf. I heard the distant sounds of machinery, almost like a factory, and it reminded me very much of the compound that I used to live in. That Rogue used to live in. Not me. Only Rogue lived there. I've never been there.

I shook my head to clear the thoughts, and started down the hallway, systematically tearing all the doors off their hinges, hoping to find Wulf, because if he was here, there was something I needed him to do. Something only he could do.

"Are you looking for him?" Simi asked me after about the fifth door.

I grunted in response, punching through another door and disemboweling it from the hallway's wall.

She was silent for a while as I moved on. Then she said "I didn't make him leave you... It's not what you think... he came to me to find me, and he ended up not wanting to go back... I think losing me made him realize he loved me... He loved you too, though..."

I interrupted her. "He never loved me. He loved Rogue. I'm Reimen. I merely carry Rogue's memories and his namesake. Nothing more."

"He loved you." She stated again, as if it were fact.

I turned around to face her, sighing softly. "If he loved me, why did he not stay to make sure I would remain safe? If he loved me, why did he leave? If he loved me, why did he sneak off in the middle of the night, without a goodbye? If he loved me, why did he make a promise to you to love you when I'm gone? He did not love me. He only thought he did until you were in danger. Does love dictate you leave that which you love and never return? Does love mean you can just leave someone there when you've pledged that their happiness is placed above their own? What is love, Simi? You seem to have had a lot of it in your life. Please, tell this zanfis, who, before becoming what stands before you now, was once a cat who was not only almost killed by his own parents, but homeless for half of his life, always on the run, never staying in the same place for more than a year, and born to survive? What is love?" I asked her this, crossing my arms at the end. It shut her up. I turned back around and continued snapping doors like they were two-by-fours.

She followed me, sniffling every now and then, but other than that, remained silent. I felt bad, so I decided to talk with her.

"How long have you been stuck in here for?" I asked her, not turning from my methodic task of breaking and entering, on a mass scale.

"I... I don't know... a month, maybe?" She would have looked lost in thought, had I turned to look at her.

"So, that means Wulf has been gone for about two weeks... Dammit." I kicked another door down and peered inside. There looked to be an assortment or syringes, all with different colored liquids inside. I grabbed a backpack that would have been rather large for someone smaller than me and placed a few into the pack, getting one of every different color, as well as multiple ones of the stuff that changed me into a zanfis. I wanted to keep those close at hand. Just in case.

I slung the backpack on my back after having filled it carefully with all of the syringes, as well as the one that was actually used on me by Malevolent, and exited the room. Simi looked at me with a puzzled expression, and the backpack was uncomfortable because it was squishing my wings a little. Somehow I felt more restricted, though I had never used them for movement.

We continued walking, and for some reason, the doorways stopped appearing. It seemed like we were heading deeper into the compound, and I could hear the machinery noises getting louder. We reached the end of that hallway, and stopped where it split into another, going both left and right. I scented the air, trying for all I was worth to determine which way had the fresher air coming from it so I could get Simi out of here, and then go back in for Wulf. Demi could rot in here for all I cared, honestly. It's not like I liked the guy, I just tolerated him because Simi had liked him. No wait, Rogue had tolerated him because Simi had liked him. Reimen didn't know him.

I finally caught the faintest whiff of fresh air, the smallest sliver of something green, coming from the passageway to my right. I turned down that way, and Simi called after me, telling me to wait.

"The machine noises are coming from down this way." She pointed down the left.

"Yes, but I just smelled fresh air coming from the right. I need to get you back to where you, Wulf, Demi, and Rogue lived, then come back here to grab Wulf and get back. Then I don't know what I'll do. I can't live with you people. Not anymore." I sighed. She seemed intent on following the machinery.

"You can go that way, but I'm finding Wulf." She started down the hallway. I strode after her, my longer legs making the feat an easy five strides back the way I came. I scooped her up in my arms and started walking back down the right passageway, making sure I didn't grab her inappropriately.

"H-hey! Put me d-down!" She stammered, struggling.

"Don't make me put you in the backpack with all the pointy thingies." I warned her. "If Wulf loves you, I'm doing him a favor by making sure you won't get hurt, now settle down and maybe I'll let you walk." I continued walking, my strides unbroken by her struggling. I followed my sense of smell, whenever we came to a passageway that forked in half or three or four different directions, I took whichever one was the cleanest smelling, and by clean I mean fresh-air clean. I also took it upon myself to kick down any doors I saw, just because I hated Malevolent for giving me this species. He gave it to me, and I was going to make him pay for it. Literally. These doors can't be all that cheap.

Sooner or later I came to another iron door, and Simi and I didn't have to strain to hear screams coming from the other side, coming from a male. A large male. I set her down.

"Stay right here. Do not move. At all. Understand? I'm going to show this door how to get broken, and look at what's inside of there." She nodded vigorously and backed away a little, but staying nearby.

I studied the door. There was no locking mechanism on this one. I tried being civilized for once and turned the knob. It opened and swung inwards freely, though I still twisted the door off its hinges just for hell's sake. It was impossibly dark in there, so I concentrated and closed my eyes. When I opened them, my vision was tinted blue, and I could see the room clear as day, though we were in a building.

There were bloodstains everywhere, and the sound of someone or something getting mauled were only getting louder the longer I lingered, and so I walked in and shut the door behind me after one last look at Simi. I left the backpack with the syringes outside with her.

Part 4

I stepped into the room carefully, not making a sound as I walked silently through. The sounds of agonized torture were too apparent to drown out now, but what could I do, I had to find them. They sounded like they were made by something feral, by something wild and untamed, yet they were somewhat recognizable as well. Almost familiar. They brought to mind a certain canine that Rogue had loved, but I didn't know them personally. As Reimen I hadn't met them yet.

There was blood everywhere, on the walls, on the floor, even on the ceiling. I wondered what had happened in here, if it was anything like what had happened to me.

There was another door on the far side of the room, and the mangled screams were coming from the other side. I kicked the door down and smashed the camera in the corner afterwards with said door, making a whole lot of noise as I did so. I didn't care. If it was Wulf, then this could all be over. If it wasn't, I'd finally have to kill somebody. What a shame.

I ducked through the doorway and, lo and behold, it was Wulf; somehow the transformation made him shorter, as if it compacted his entire form into a neater, nicer package. He was still just over seven feet tall, though. Being that tall would make me quite dizzy, but that's beside the point. The point was, he was big. And I mean really big. He looked just shy of being a pro bodybuilder. That wasn't what freaked me out a little more than normal, though. What freaked me out was that he looked like he was half dragon now. Not a mix of things like I was, but purely half and half. He still had his trademark grey fur, and his paw wasn't mangled anymore, it had all of its digits.

But he had actual wings, like dragon wings, not pseudo-wyvern wings like I had. He also has facial spikes above his eyes, poking through his skin, and oddly enough, he had fins on the sides of his forearms and legs, as if they would help him during flight.

He turned and looked at me, and I found myself caught in his smiling eyes, once again. Only they were maligned with fear and terror. He must have thought that, even though I was much shorter than him, that I was here to deliver some terrible new virus into him that would cause him to transform into something more. Something like me. A monster.

I greeted him. "Hello." I help up my paw in a sort of wave. He was ten feet away, and his screaming had stopped. He looked as if he was confused. I wouldn't blame him if he was. I'd be scared too. I was scared too. I was absolutely horrified when Malevolent came in and jabbed me with that syringe full of omnipotent-vegetable-knows-what. I didn't blame him.

He turned and faced me, searching my face, my entire body for something he could recognize. His face did not flicker with recognition. We stayed silent, examining each other, for a long while. Finally, and with great effort, he spoke.

"Do... do I know you...?" he coughed a little at the end, as if he had, just like me, had difficulty with speaking due to the change.

"Maybe. You might have known me in my past life. But in this life I am afraid I don't know you yet. Who are you?" I asked him. I was still looking at his eyes, and it tore Rogue's heart apart to see the pain in his eyes. The guilt. Like he knew before I had even said a word who I was and what I knew.

"I'm Draco Faris. But you can call me Wulf." He grunted again and scratched his head, looking around, as if he wondered why he had been screaming in the first place.

"It's nice to meet you, Wulf. Your companion, Simi, is waiting outside for you." His eyes lit up with that, and his ears perked up too. I remained stoic. Rogue choked back a sob.

"Simi? Simi's here? Did she find me at last?" He seemed eager. Too eager. A familiar ache settled itself inside of my chest. Heartache.

"No. She didn't find you. I found you. I found you because I needed you, and because Simi needed you. I found Simi because I needed her to find you, and I looked for you because I needed you to find her. And I found you." I surmised for him.

He nodded absentmindedly. "And who, may I ask, are you?" he regarded me once again in a new light, with his quizzical look. Eyebrow raised, head cocked to one side, one ear slightly more perky than the other. I wanted to scream. Seeing that hurt Rogue so much. But I wasn't Rogue anymore. I couldn't be. He died. Simi killed him. Yet he still feels. Why does he feel? He's dead. He cannot.

A remnant of a smile ghosted my lips, "I am someone you once knew, and someone you once left. Someone who once loved, someone you must forget." I rhymed to him. He didn't understand.

"And your name is what?"

"Would you like the name I was given at my birth, or the name I have given myself due to necessity, and the death of my true name?" I said to him, dropping him another hint.

"The one from necessity, please." He said. He was really antsy. He must have wanted to go see Simi very badly. I briefly wondered how they would make love, Simi being five and a half feet tall, and Wulf being seven feet tall. It certainly would be awkward... and... limby... so to speak. I shook the thought from my mind and replied.

"I am Reimen."

"And why do you call yourself that, Reimen?"

"Because when Rogue died, I was all that Reimened. I am all that is left of the one who loved you with every ounce of themselves."

His eyes widened and his jaw went a little slack. Those smiling eyes were sparking with shock and realization. The demented part of myself started to snicker, then chuckle, then laugh with glee at his obvious pain at the realization that I am - was - Rogue.

"Rogue? Dead?" He began.

"Yes. Now all that remains of him are his eyes." I touched my eyes, closing them as my fingers briefly rested on the lids. "... his memories..." my paw moved to my forehead, and rested there for a moment. "... and his broken heart." My paw rested on the left side of my chest.

"Rogue I... I'm sorry..." He started. He never finished. I interrupted him, I needed him to do something for me. Something I needed.

"It's fine. But I have something to ask of you, Wulf." I said to him, my tone somewhat flat.

He perked his ears again. "Will it ever be enough to make it up to you?" he asked.

I nodded. "More than I can ever repay."

He swallowed. "Name it."

I stood in front of him, arms spread wide, an open target. "My name is Reimen Sinclaire. I was once Rogue. I was once loved. Not anymore. However, I will forgive you if you do one simple thing for me, Draco Faris."

He looked more determined, and his eyes got that steely determination they sometimes get when he's excited. He stood up straighter as he replied once more. "I said name it."

"Very well." I said, smirking.

"Kill me."