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Chapter 3

"A Lone Hunter No More"

The next several hours were uneventful. None of the messages they sent had received responses yet, which was concerning, but also knowing the Rokonis pack, was not unexpected. Zhal had Lycosi stand watch on the bridge while he and Rav went to lay down. Zhal didn't need to sleep, but felt Rav would sleep better in his arms, and knew he desperately needed the rest. And he had hoped it would keep the nightmares Rav kept having at bay.

The two Lycans cuddled close in bed, Rav snoring quietly, his head laying on the black Forgebreed's chest, as Zhal laid motionless save for his "breathing" which was more for cooling his internals than anything else, holding the brown Nitharian close. He sighed softly, very much enjoying the closeness with Rav.

While the two have very much decided they wanted to spend their lives together, and had become very intimate several times, Rav still had occasional flashes of... fear? He wasn't sure, Rav just couldn't stand being in the same room with people. Zhal wished he could do something to help him more, but over the past few months, the Lycan grew much closer to him and most nights they would sleep together. He still occasionally woke up from awful nightmares, crying. He almost never talked about them aside from being very vague. And he would barely sleep for days afterward.

He also wasn't sure if it was just nightmares, sometimes. Rav would react as if he were experiencing non-existent stimuli. He could see the Lycan's eyes reacting to things that weren't there, but Rav would try to hide it. Heard noises that weren't there, smelled a non-existent fragrance twitching his nose and ears unconsciously. Very rarely, but it was usually after one of these reactions seemed more intense than usual where Rav would decide he needed distance and would excuse himself. His heart and respiratory rates were usually elevated after one of these instances.

The one time he approached him about it, Rav had said insistently that it was nothing, and when Zhal pressed him further, he distanced himself. After Zhal backed off on the subject, he tried to track the times and locations of the occurrences to try to figure out if there was a correlation between the events. There wasn't. Everything told him that these instances weren't the result of mental health issues, but his reactions to them proved otherwise. Perhaps they were something else but they were so taxing they affected his mental health? Zhal knew something was very wrong, but he didn't push Rav to explain anymore. He would do it on his own time, and he would be there for him when he did.

Rav moved a bit, wrapping his arms tighter around Zhal, smiling up at the Lycan, "Mmm, seems I got me a floofy pillow."

Zhal giggled, "Hey, I'm not a pillow. I'm your friendly neighborhood Lycan," He nipped at Rav's nose playfully.

The brown Lycan snickered, burying his nose in Zhal chestfur, pressing his cold nose in, "You're definitely a Lycan." He floofed up Zhal's chestfur some, "With some pillow sprinkled in." He buried his nose in Zhal's chestfur, pressing the coldness against his skin.

The black Lycan squirmed some as the cold nose pressed against his skin. He may be a Forgebreed, but he still had the same reactions any other Lycan. And that was his fur floofing out as a result, "Hey, stop that!" The black Lycan laughed, biting playfully at Rav's ears, making overly exaggerated chewing noises.

Rav squirmed and laughed as his ear was chewed on, "Nooo, I need that to hear!"

Zhal chuckled and stopped chewing, hugging the Lycan for a moment, before nosing him softly, "Ugh... I don't want to get up, but we have that Chaos-damned Tak'roki tech to deal with..."

Rak whimpered, rubbing his paws through Zhal's backfur, "Aww, but I was looking forward to getting knotted..." He nosed the Forgebreed's neck, slipping a paw down to grope his sheath and balls, making the Forgebreed squirm more, "But you're right. This is pretty serious. What can we do about it though? Asero, how long until we reach the Maelstrom Nebula?" He moved his paw away from teasing the Lycan, scritching his belly some.

"5 hours 15 minutes." Asero replied over the com.

"Hmm, I slept quite a while, that doesn't happen often." He sat up in the bed and stretched.

Zhal nodded, "You did sleep pretty well for once. Must need a specific black Lycan to cuddle. You need to do that more, clearly." He chuckled, sitting up with Rav. "And you're absolutely ravenous today, aren't you?" He snickered, sneaking a paw down to Rav's semi-firm sheath, giving the head of his cock a playful squeeze.

The brown Lycan blushed and squirmed as Zhal teased him back. "Ack! Make things worse why don't you! I guess that's what enough sleep does to me." The brown Lycan smiled over to Zhal, "Oh yes, more floofy cuddles," He sighed, "I really wish it were that simple."

"Did you have a nightmare last time you slept?"

Rav nodded, "yeah, I don't remember much though. Heard voices, sounded like arguing, felt like I got stabbed."

Zhal tilted his head, "That's why you were rubbing your chest. Did it actually hurt?"

Rav blinked, "You noticed? Yeah, it ached a little."

The black Forgebreed poked Rav's nose, "I notice a lot of things. The curse of a built-in hyperthymesia."

"Aww, remembering everything that ever happened to you seems really useful though," he stops on that thought, "Though I can see how that can get awkward, never being able to forget bad memories too."

"Exactly," Zhal replied, laughing. "There's a few things I wish I could forget. I could delete them, but then what would that make me?"

"A cheater?" Rav mused, before laughing, "Nah, you wouldn't be you if you did that." He rubbed his neck, stretching again. "We really need to get a status update on the messages. Though I doubt the Rokonis are gonna respond to the message, don't think I've ever had one reply."

Zhal nodded, "That's entirely possible. Have you ever met a Tak'roki Nitharian?"

"Don't think I have. Though I wouldn't know if I did, I'm assuming."

"You wouldn't unless they wanted you to know." Zhal rubbed his head, "I've met a couple. They're... Pretty friendly, I guess? A little aloof at times. Somewhat condescending too, but they usually apologize if you call them out. And they like being enigmatic."

Rav shakes his head, "Oof. I don't think I would get along with them, in that case. I have little patience for that kind of stuff. Anyways, I guess we should go see what we can do about the cargo."

Zhal laughed and nodded, "I figured as much. I didn't put up with much of their shit either." Zhal nodded, giving his Lycan a hug, "Yeah, lets go check on that." They both got dressed and stepped out of their quarters, making their way to the bridge. They entered the lift. "Bridge," Zhal spoke.

Rav stopped the lift for a second, "Actually, one of us should check engineering. Tarchavi will have our heads if at least one of us isn't checking things occasionally." He tapped the com panel on the lift, "Engineering," He spoke.

Zhal chuckled, "It should be fine. Most of the systems on this ship can self-maintain."

The brown Lycan nodded, "I know, but it won't hurt to check. I just want to be able to say I helped him out in some way. I feel bad for scaring him off."

The black Lycan chuckled, "You're fine Rav. But I'm sure he'll appreciate it. Just come up to the bridge when you're done." The lift opened on the Engineering deck.

"Will do. See you soon Zhal," Rav smiled, kissing Zhal on the muzzle before he stepped out of the lift.

---

Rav stepped into the engineering deck, the lift closing behind him as he made his way to the engine room. The door opened into an expansive area, various control panels monitoring the cores. The ship carried two Solitrion-based singularity reactors, since the hyperdrive required exotic matter to function. They were sealed behind a very heavy door, as any exposure to the reactors without protection was extremely dangerous.

Rav stepped up to each panel, checking the system monitors to make sure everything was stable. From what he could tell, everything looked fine, and there didn't seem to be any damage to the section. The core shielding had only recently been replaced, so they had not degraded.

Don't you see it?

Rav blinked, looking around the room. He knew he heard a voice.

I don't. What do you see?

I don't know! I saw something, in the darkness. It looked like it was moving.

Rav continued to look around, until he gazed around the corner. "Hello?" He called out. He stepped into a corridor, where there would normally be a window, with the blast shield closed. There were two Nitharians standing in front of the window, very transparent and not actually present. "Who are you?" He called over to them. They didn't seem to notice him.

I think they're coming this way!

Are they wraiths?

Not sure, I've never seen them before.

Looking up out the window, he saw the glow of something.

Oh fuck! One's coming in!!

The glow passed into the window, going right for the two Nitharians.

SHIT! AHHHHHH!, IT'S...

The creature instantly killed one of the Nitharians, non-existent viscera being thrown everywhere, then turned to the other, who was cowering in the corner.

Rav was frozen in fear, watching as the creature moved on the other Nitharian, watching them scoot further in the room before the creature attacked them, the sickening sound of fleshand bones crunching. _MOVE NOW!!!,_he thought to himself.He activated his Tak'roki armor with a thought, a black cloud emerging from his fur in an instant and resettling onto him, forming a black, metallic armor, appearing to double as an EV suit, across his body.

"FUCKINGELEMENTS, PLEASES-STOP THIS....!" He fell backwards, scooting back into Engineeringagainst a console. He quickly pulledhis blade out of his scabbard and tappeda sequence on the hilt, the rodat the end of the hilt liquefying and forming into a sword blade, holding it out in front of him.He watched thescene, hoping the creature wouldn't see him, which eventually faded away.

Hedropped his sword and placed his paws on his head, whimpering, trembling on the floor against a console, "Wh... why...FUCKING WHY!?"

"Rav, are you okay? I'm detecting an elevated respiratory and heart rate from you." Asero called over the com.

"FUCK OFF!!", he growled into the com. He just sat on the floor for a moment, whimpering.

"Rav, are you okay??" Zhal called over the com a second later. "Asero said your heart rate is up! I... heard your reply to his message. What's wrong? I'm heading down there!"

Ravwhimpered, taking a second before calling out, "No, I-I'm not. T-things are fine here though, I'll be on the bridge in a minute. You don't have to come here."With another simple thought and a tap on the back of his hand, the armor formeda cloud around him before settling back underneath his fur.

Hepicked up his sword, tapping a sequence on the hilt, the blade liquefying and retracting back into a rod, before putting in his scabbard. He got up off the floor,looking around for a moment, a bit dazed,before hehurried out of the engine room, making his way to the lift.

---

As he entered the bridge, Zhal met him immediately, "Rav? What's wrong?"

Rav made his way over to the Captain's chair, not even glancing at Zhal by the door, "Nothing. Everything. I don't k-know anymore. D-did we receive any messages?" Nezra was at the helm, and Asero was at Tactical. Lycosi was likely asleep.

Zhal blinked as Rav passed him, before taking the seat next to him, placing a paw softly on his shoulder. Rav didn't turn to face Zhal, but he could tell Rav had been crying. "We're not quite sure-- er, well, Nezra?"

Nezra spoke up as she worked at her console. "Well, we received... something, about 7 minutes ago. Some kind of burst transmission, but it seemed off. It seemed to come from... everywhere. We've been trying to identify it. It seems to be encrypted by a signature I've never seen."

Rav blinked, "...Unknown transmission?" He brought up a holodisplay of the information, eyeing all the strange details about it. He blinked as he seemed to pick up on a detail. "What the fuck do they want?"

"Who?" Zhal asked.

Rav seemed too engrossed in the message to reply. He seemed to know what it was because he began to run a decryption key on the message that none of them had seen before. The message opened up. "C-Centauri Expanse? Why there?"

Zhal looked over his shoulder, seeing some of the data, "The Rokonis want us to go there?"

Rav read over some more data, "Yeah, but... The message... S-Something isn't right..." His eyes widened on one particular detail, "The case, I need t-to see it!" Rav stood up and bolted out of the bridge.

"Rav, wait!!" Zhal called out, but he'd already left. He sighed. He looked over the message data he was reading. It had a temporal signature on it and it was sent... from the future? It looks like part of the message was received by the case. He quickly closed the message. "Set course for the Centauri Expanse, maximum sustainable speed," Zhal ordered. "Take the bridge Nezra, I need to talk to Rav." He followed him quickly out of the bridge.

Zhal ran quickly down the corridor. Lycosi was making his way from the other direction. He jumped out of Zhal's way as he passed and entered the lift. "Crew Deck," He called out.

The trip was short. He stepped out, heading quickly down the corridor and found the vault door opened, "Rav!" He stepped in, the locker with the case was open, and Rav was sitting on the floor, his back to the lockers. "Rav? What's wrong?"

"I...I think I'm going to be sick." He whimpered, looking down.

Zhal stepped over to the case, looking at the shipping information.

---

New Destination Change Entered: Centauri Expanse, Sol Sector

Destination Change Requested By: Order of Time, Skoll'zhatis Alliance

Additional Information: The Order of Time and the Skoll'zhatis Alliance requests the presence of Captain Ravanos Sironis Altieris and Administrator Zhalvir Sironis Procyonis in the Centauri Expanse, Sol Sector. Further Information Forthcoming. Proceed to the included coordinates at best possible speed.

---

Zhal eyed the case and blinked. "Huh? The Order of Time? What do they have to do with this?" He looked at Rav.

Rav sighed, "Everything, apparently. I...I don't know if I can do this.. Not again."

Zhal blinked, "Do what? Rav, what's going on?"

Rav finally looked up at him, and it was obvious that the Lycan was crying. "I... I need to talk to you about some things Zhal. I should've told you before I came here." He sighed, "It's very classified, so I will very likely end up imprisoned afterwards."

He rubbed his paw along Rav's cheek. "Oh fuck. You don't have to tell me if you can..."

Rav interrupted, "But I want to. You deserve to know Zhal. I don't care what they do to me. I owe it to you."

Zhal nodded slowly, shaking a little himself. He'd never seen Rav like this before and it was scaring him. "Okay. Lets go to our quarters first though. You don't look comfortable." He hit the control on the locker, closing the door. He offered his paw to Rav, "Come on."

Rav gingerly took his paw, pulling himself up. Zhal wrapped his arm around the Lycan, stepping out of the vault. He hit the control on the door, closing and obscuring it. They worked their way through the corridors in silence, Rav trembling some against him. They stepped into their quarters, closing and locking the door behind them.

"Asero, privacy mode please." Zhal called out, leading Rav over to the couch, sitting next to him, his arm still wrapped around him.

Asero called out, "Privacy mode on. Disable from the com panel by the door."

Rav just looked down for a long moment, Zhal nosing him on the cheek softly, "So what's this about?"

The brown Lycan just sat there for a moment, before sighing softly. "Almost two years ago, at the encouragement of my Captain, I applied and was accepted into the Order of Time, training to eventually become a Temporal Agent. I had been put through a significant amount of training, when an... opportunity came down." He stopped for a moment, taking a breath, leaning against Zhal before continuing, "They needed some volunteers to test an experimental drug, Compound #8693264/TCN, called Paradoxalin. It sounded amazing. It was meant to protect Temporal Agents from changes in the timestream, and the early test results looked promising, so they moved onto volunteers. I joined up, seeing it as an opportunity to show my commitment to the Order."

He stopped for a moment, slipping his paw onto Zhal's, squeezing it softly. "The tests went well. We were able to enter lower scale temporal anomalies without losing our memory or experience in them." He held Zhal's paw tighter. "After a time, all the volunteers began to get sick. We were dying. They did an analysis on us, and found our cellular structures were degrading. After who knows how much prodding, they injected us with more Paradoxalin. Our cellular structures stabilized. We were fine again. One nasty side effect," he growled softly, holding his head in a paw. He sighed, looking back up after a moment, "They didn't mention anything but minor side effects at the time, but this one... Once exposed, we have to take the Paradoxalin for the rest of our lives, or our cellular structure collapses." He clenched his paw, "It was as though they'd ended our lives without a second thought. They HAD to have known."

Zhal squeezed his paw back softly, "Rav.. I'm.. I'm so sorry."

Rav nodded, and continued, "This brought up another... side effect. Doesn't affect me much, because I'm male-fated and will never have pups, but some of the other volunteers did want to start families someday. Since the drug infuses everything, it means any attempts will result in offspring that are dependent on Paradoxalin, if they survived, which they likely won't."

He nuzzled Zhal softly, before wiping some tears from his eyes. "After a while, we realized we were experiencing yet another side effect. Occasionally, we'd see people that aren't there, hear half of a conversation. You know, mundane stuff." He sighed, trembling, "Sometimes, we'd witness... horrible acts of violence. Or feel ourselves get stabbed." He rubbed the spot on his chest from the other day. "I... I saw a monster devour two Nitharians in Engineering earlier." He shuddered at the thought. "It turns out, we started hallucinating other potential timestreams. Sometimes they would even invade our dreams."

Rav noticed Zhal was quiet for a long moment, and had squeezed his paw tighter in return. Went he looked up at him, the black Lycan looked like he saw a ghost. "Zhal? Are you okay?"

"Rav? That... that happened here. Almost 32 years ago." Zhal said quietly.

"...What?" The brown and white Lycan was trembling.

"Two of my crew members were killed by... something, in Engineering about 32 years ago. It looked like they were... t-torn apart. Whatever it was passed through the hull from outside like it wasn't there. There was no clue what did it. No foot or hand prints in the blood.. Nothing. We never figured out what did it." Zhal pulled Rav closer. "I-I'm so sorry you witnessed that."

Rav leaned more into Zhal, his fur damp from tears, burying his face in the black Lycan's fur, "Fucking elements. I'm seeing actual events now? I'm seeing fucking ghosts!? I-I'm sorry that happened to your crew, Zhal. Maybe I can help answer your question of what did it finally though. I wish I had a better look at it." He squeezed Zhal closer, trying hard to keep himself together. "It was glowing, and winged, and it was large. One of your crew members asked the other if it was a wraith. I've never seen one myself, but it's rumored they exist outside the timestream. I think they look similar to what I saw."

Zhal nuzzled into Rav's headfur, sighing, "Fuck Rav. What you're going through is horrific. But... thank you for putting that aside to tell me what you saw. I need to tell their families." He kisses Rav's ear softly, "Isn't there anything they can give you stop these hallucinations though?"

Rav shook his head, "They're not normal hallucinations. Since they're temporal in nature, there's nothing that can be one." He pulls his face out of his Lycan's fur, "You might want to hold on telling their families for now. Otherwise, 'My crazy mate saw their ghosts' doesn't sound too plausible, and my... ability, I guess I should call it, is still classified."

"You're not crazy Rav, don't ever talk like that. But... you have a point. I'll hold off telling them for now." he sighed, holding Rav close, letting the brown Lycan continue while he quietly accessed his correlations on Rav's previous hallucinations. He personally never recorded any data on temporal anomalies during the events since he didn't think to configure his own sensors for temporal events. But the ship did track everything. He ran the events that occurred on or near the ship for correlations. That's it!! A chroniton spike at every occurrence. Larger spikes occurred during more intense events. The most recent one was somehow caused by the message because it was sent from the future? This is exactly what he was looking for. He quietly began a process on the ship to find ways to block chroniton spikes without injuring Rav. He was glad he could do all of this in a nanosecond, otherwise Rav would've thought his attention was drifting.

Rav nodded. "Anyways, back to my...heh... adventure. I was... furious... to say the least. I... umm, got a little aggressive with one of the scientists at the facility. Kind of throttled them. Pretty sure I injured them badly. I didn't resign by the way." He sighed as he hesitated on the next part for a moment, "I got a court martial, and discharged from the Alliance for assaulting a fellow officer. Everyone else left the Order of Time. Two of the other volunteers... ended their own lives rather than deal with... this." He leaned into the black Lycan, trembling, "Please don't kick me off your ship, Zhal. You've kept me sane while the world around me felt like it was collapsing... you pulled me from the darkness. I don't want to lose you. I...I wish I'd trusted you sooner."

Zhal squeezed Rav close to him, nuzzling into his neck.. "Rav, I would never do that to you. You're my Lycan, and you will always have me." He looked into Rav's eyes, "Is.. is that what you've been worried about? That I would kick you off the ship?"

Rav nodded slowly, "N-no one wants a medical experiment working for them, let alone being intimate with them. Especially an unstable one. It's been s-so hard for me to find work since I left. I had to go back to Skoll'zhatis to have them classify my work with the Order of Time and my discharge so it wouldn't leave black mark on my public record." He squeezed Zhal's paw again, "When you ran into me for the first time, I thought they'd sent you to execute me. I was so paranoid."

Zhal blinked, "Execute you?? Why?"

Rav trembled, "For a time, the Order was talking about... terminating the test subjects because we could be potentially dangerous to the timestream. That's why I attacked that scientist. The fucking gall they have to ask us that to 'prevent prolonged suffering' after what THEY did to us," Rav growled, his paw balled into a fist. He seemed like he wanted to hit something, before he closed his eyes and took a few breaths to calm down, relaxing. "They still give us Paradoxalin to keep us stable though. That's why I leave occasionally, I have to pick up my supply."

Zhal whimpered, "That's awful Rav. I'm so sorry about what they did to you." He nosed Rav softly, gazing into his eyes. "You definitely were well within your rights there. I... might've gone further in your situation. They shouldn't have discharged you."

"Thank you Zhal, for everything." he leaned into the Lycan, trembling.

Zhal held the Lycan close, "If you don't mind me asking, do you know why they want us to go to the Centauri Expanse?"

Rav thought for a moment. "If I had to guess, considering the Order of Time is involved, my guess would be we're going to the Sol System."

Zhal rubbed his muzzle, "The Sol system, why's that familiar... Oh, the temporal anomaly swallowed Earth and every other inner planet of the system?"

Rav nodded, "Well, not swallowed, but yeah, maybe they found a way to finally deal with the anomaly there."

Zhal thought for a moment, "Regarding our cargo, do you have any idea what else would emit a quoron signature like that without being Tak'roki Sparks, that the Order of Time would want?"

Rav shrugged, leaning more into the black Lycan, "I don't know. I very much doubt it's Sparks because there's no way the Rokonis would give anyone those. The Order obviously requested something that generates a signature close to them but I don't know what. And if it were dangerous, the Rokonis wouldn't be shipping them, they likely would've delivered them themselves." He thought for a moment, "The only thing I don't know it why they have you involved too. The message on the case is requesting your presence too."

The black Lycan nodded, rubbing Rav's ears gently, "Okay, that's good to know at least. And I don't know why they want me either. I've never worked with the Order of Time in either of my iterations." He slides a paw into Rav's and squeezes softly, "Look, Rav... I know this Paradoxalin is probably classified, but, do you think it would be okay if we got a sample of it from one of your vials, so we could try to synthesize it? I really don't like this stranglehold they have on you. They could cut your supply off to force your hand at any time, and I really don't like that."

Rav grumbled, "I wish I could, they track my usage of it..." He stopped, as Zhal was giving his paw another squeeze and was getting ready to object. He knew Zhal was going to fight him on this, and win, so he submitted, "O-okay. I really don't like this either, and you're absolutely right. I need to be free of them. I took a dose yesterday, so there should still be enough in my blood for a small sample."

"Thank you Rav, we'll head to the medical bay after this." He smiled, giving Rav a kiss on the nose,holding the Lycan close for a moment, contemplating. "You know, when we get to the Centauri Expanse, it's gonna take everything my power not to maul and maim those Order of Timefuckers into oblivion."

Rav laughed a little, "Zhal! Be nice... they did victimize me, at least give me the honor of mauling them.."

Zhal hmphed, "Bah, you're no fun..."

Rav smiled, "Aww, well how about you help? Hold them while I maul?"

"Deal!" Zhal giggled. He was happy Rav was at least feeling a little better now. Hmmm, maybe now is the best time to tell him... Zhal thought, trying to come up with the best way to put it... "Rav.. I know you just literally spilled a big part of your trauma on me, something I could see was very hard for you. Would you like to hear a secret I've been holding onto for a very long time?"

Rav looked at the Lycan, and blinked, "A secret? Is this the big one you keep coming up short of telling me?"

Zhal's ears blushed, "Ooof, you noticed, huh? Yeah, it's a pretty big one.. I'm... scared you might feel differently of me afterward. I really didn't want to scare you off."

Rav rubbed Zhal's ears, "Nothing could change how I feel about you. Well, unless you wiped entire civilizations out."

Zhal laughed, "No, it's nothing near that bad."

Rav smiled softly, nosing Zhal's cheek, "Then it won't change anything. Please tell me."

Zhal nodded, then began to think... Okay Zhal, you can do this.. breath... wait, I don't breath.. relax... "Hrmm... okay.... Well, how do I put this... Hmmm... Well, this..." he says, indicating the general vicinity of his body... "This is my second iteration." The Lycan gazed in Rav's eyes, trying to gauge his reaction.

Rav blinked a few times, looking the Lycan up and down, "Wait, what??"