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R-Evolution

6: Ending

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Author's Notes:

I'm sorry for taking so long to post this next chapter. A lot of stuff has happened, and it's been keeping me away from my hobbies. But things seem to be returning to normal for the time being, so hopefully I can continue with the next installations and have them posted much sooner. This chapter isn't as long as I'd hoped it would be, but when I got to the final comment, It just felt like that was how this chapter should end. Hopefully the next chapter will have more plot development to it ^.=.^ Please enjoy this chapter, I'm looking forward to hearing your comments.

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What is an ending? Is it really an ending, or could it be the beginning of another story that's yet to happen? I suppose most endings truly are an end, with the rare exception here or there. I saw my ending, and then somehow I passed into a new beginning. I can't say I was entirely happy about being forced into it, but then again I've never really liked change. My mother used to tell me when I was younger, "you cannot control the world around you, you can only control how you react to it." It took me longer to remember that bit of advice than I would care to admit.

• Tom

Allen woke with a pain in his arm. The thin, deteriorating carpet covering the concrete floor hadn't provided much padding while he slept. He felt his stomach gurgle as he rolled over and opened his eyes. Jack was still out and breathing heavily, his filthy blood-matted fur was an unpleasant reminder of the events that transpired only a few hours ago. His heart sank at the thought of how close he had come to losing his friend, his love.

He stared tenderly at Jack a few minutes, his thoughts slowly drifting without real purpose, before his eyes came to rest on the stained floor between them. Tom was gone.

Allen sat up slowly and glanced around the cubicle, then more closely at the area between himself and Jack. The egg was gone too. Allen suddenly felt irritable.

He wondered if Tom even felt connected to them, as a part of their pack. His tendencies to act on his own clearly suggested that he didn't. And if he wasn't going to be a part of this pack, he reasoned, then the chance that he would betray them later on would become problematic.

Allen tried to shake those thoughts from his mind when he realized how unreasonable he was sounding to himself. Why would Tom betray them? He wasn't bound to the same mental meshing Jack and he were. He very well could still feel like their pack-mate and still be free enough to not be enslaved by it. Or could he? A part of him doubted it so he pushed it to the back of his mind where it wouldn't trouble him for the time being.

Actually, the more he thought about it, the more envious of Tom's freedom he was. He hadn't fully understood what he was getting himself into when he joined this experiment. He would have never signed his life away so quickly had he just known. Had he known that he would have to surrender himself... so completely... to this new life, and despite his broken heart, he knew he would have made a different decision. He wouldn't wish this upon anyone...

But at the same time... he knew that now, he wouldn't trade it for anything in the world.

Allen was happy to feel his mood beginning to lighten. Tom's absence though, and by extension his un-hatched child, was still troubling him. He really wished he wouldn't wander off like this, especially with a young one in tow. It's irresponsible to stray away from the safety of the pack like that.

Allen twitched his ears thoughtfully a few times before forcing himself to his feet. Resting his hand on the side of the cubicle, he leaned out through the doorway. Tom wasn't anywhere in the large office room, unless for some reason he had decided to sleep in a different cubicle. He sniffed the air to try and pick up Tom's scent but was quickly distracted by a familiar voice from behind him.

"I thought I heard you get up." Said jack in a warm yet exhausted sort of way. Just the sound of his voice brought a smile to his face.

Allen turned around. "Good morning!" He said with a laugh. "Assuming it's morning anyway. So how are you feeling?"

Jack sighed. "Like someone ran me over with an eighteen wheeler." He flattened his ears against his head. "I hurt in places I didn't even know it was possible to hurt!"

"We should probably look for some medicine after we get ourselves cleaned up." Allen suggested as he picked at the dried blood on his pelt.

Jack nodded then glanced around the cubicle. "Where's Tom?"

"He's wondered off again." Allen sounded more exasperated than he meant to. "I was just looking for him when you woke up."

"What do you mean 'Again?'" Jack asked.

Allen sighed, he knew he'd never wondered off a first time, it was just these annoying instinctual inclinations getting the better of him. "Nothing.... I mean, it just feels weird, like he shouldn't have gone anywhere without us."

Jack shot him a somewhat irritated and confused. "What?"

Allen shook his head. "For some reason it just feels like it's my responsibility to keep us all together, and it really bothers me that I'm not able to do that right now." He sighed again and warmly smiled back at Jack. "You must not be feeling the same thing then eh?"

Jack shook his head. "No, but that does explain a few things."

Allen raised an eyebrow, but Jack didn't offer a reply. Instead he began struggling to get on his feet.

Allen rushed over and offered his paw. Jack eyed his mates paw and cringed before begrudgingly taking hold of it. Obviously annoyed that he was unable to do something so simple by himself.

"Tom probably went looking for medical supplies." Jack grunted painfully as he stood. "We should probably go find him."

This surprised Allen. "You know where he went?" He asked.

"I know where the medical bay was, and if it's still there, it should be marked by arrows on the doors and walls." Jack explained. "He probably went in that general direction."

"'Was?' You don't think it's still there? And what makes you think that's where he went?"

Jack shrugged. "A lot has changed since then. But I've been thinking, and I think I know where we are now. And about Tom, let's just call it intuition." He winked. "Besides, where else would he wander off to."

Jack pointed behind them. "The place we came from, that's all new. But this office, I think it was the large storage room my boss hated so much. So, if I'm right, then there should be a hallway through that door that ends in a T junction."

"Do you think you can walk all right?"

"I'm a little stiff, but I think I'll be alright."

Allen smiled and nodded curiously.

"But," Jack added. "I wouldn't turn down any assistance either."

______

As Tom rummaged through the vast amounts of medical supplies and drugs the Medical Bay had to offer, which was not an easy thing to do while cradling a large egg. He took this moment of solitude to do some much needed soul-searching. What had he gotten himself into, and what should he do now? Those were his second and third largest concerns at the moment. The largest concern of course was the egg, or more specifically, the supposed child within that egg.

Without really thinking about it as he searched, he located a pad of splotchy lined paper and an old pencil and set them aside. After locating a few bottles of antibiotics, pain medicine, bandages, and a few various other things he set them into a pile and picked up the pad and pencil again. When he was younger he had a journal that he would write in whenever things were bad. This, he thought, definitely qualified as being "bad," so while he snugly held the egg on his arms with his chin, he began to write:

How do you move forward after everything is taken from you? There are so many choices one can make, but why do most of them lead to a dead end? This is the second time in my life I've been betrayed and lost everything. The last time I let the anger and hurt consume me, and control my actions. It was my choice I admit, I let it happen... This time though, I'd like to think that I've matured, I want things to be different. Last time, it felt like I was dead on the inside, like a black hole pulling every good emotion and feeling into it, never to be seen again... and I don't ever want to feel that way again.

I cannot take full credit for my choices in the matter. Many things have been forced upon me, and I think I've done just about everything in my power to resist the changes. But they come no matter how hard I may fight. My battles are internal of course, I don't think my friends (if I can call two monsters I've only known for a few hours my friends) are aware of them, or even the point when I guess I embraced this new life.

I can't help but laugh at myself for referring to Jack and Allen as "monsters." Isn't that what I am now? I think I still look more or less like I used to, unlike them, but inside everything is so different. I feel like a stranger inside my own mind. I feel urges, tendencies, feelings, and instincts that I've never felt before. I somehow just... know things... about other people, but I don't know what those things are. It's SO MADDENING!

...

Now it looks like I'm going to be a father. A dad. What exactly I'm going to be a father of is still a mystery to me, but I doubt it's going to be human... but honestly that thought really doesn't scare me, not in comparison to the fear I have of not being able to do the job. Not like him... I'd like to think that I will be a good father, I want my kid to be able to think back to his or her childhood and think fondly of me. To know I tried, that I did my best, that I loved him no matter what. I guess I just want him to be happy... it's all I ever wanted...

Tom slowly put the pen down and neatly folded the splotchy pages into a neat square. He glanced around the room until his eyes came to rest on a white doctors uniform with orange stains on it crumpled up next to the wall. He hurried over and threw it on, the still somewhat soft cotton a welcome gift against his skin. Tom tucked his journal pages into one of the pant's pockets, lined his shirt pockets with medicines and headed back to where he'd left Allen and Jack.

Walking at a brisk pace, he made the first turn in the hall and nearly ran into his friends. He jumped in surprise but quickly regained composure, acting like nothing had happened. The silly act of machoism was met by amused grins from both Jack and Allen.

"Jumpy?" Allen joked, while struggling to maintain balance as he helped support Jack.

"Hey, I was just coming back for you guys." Tom spoke faster than normal, as if talking faster would help wipe the looks he was getting from the wolves off their faces. I got some medicines you might find useful Jack."

He pulled 3 bottles out of his pockets and handed them to Jack. "You should probably take all three of these for a few days, unless your allergic to penicillin then you should only take these two." He pointed to the bottles in Jack's left hand.

"Then if you're doing well by then we'll switch you to one of these." He pulled a couple smaller pill bottles from his pockets and held them label side up so Jack and Allen could read them. They exchanged inquisitive glances then returned their attention to Tom.

"I also found some pain relievers. They had quite the selection, but I chose the ones that should hopefully cause the least amount of loopyness."

"How do you...?"

Tom cut Allen off: "You get to know your pills, inhailables, and injectables when you have drug addicts in the family... and there were several in mine."

"Oh, I'm very sorry." Allen said sincerely, fidgeting under Jack's weight.

"It's alright," Tom said, "that was quite a while ago, and they're all dead now."

Allen nodded understandingly at Tom and then asked Jack which way the Medical Bay. Jack pointed forward and motioned to the hall on the left. Tom hurried over to Jack's other side and helped Allen carry him as they made their way there.

"You know my grandmother was a pill head." Allen said, leaning forward to look at Tom. "My mother never had anything good to say about her either, I think it scarred her for life."

Tom nodded. "Yeah, it really sucks."

"But don't worry," He smiled hoping to lighten the conversation, "I'm not going to let Jack get himself addicted."

Jack rolled his eyes. "I don't care what the hell you give me, I just don't want to be feeling pain like this if at all avoidable." He narrowed his view. "I am a bit concerned about one thing though."

Tom raised an eyebrow.

"I'm not entirely sure drugs will effect us like they would regular humans. You know... they have different medications for dogs and cats than they do for humans... their bodies work differently. So, there's really no telling how they might actually work."

"We're still mostly human though aren't we?" Allen asked looking at Jack sideways.

Jack didn't answer, he just gave a half-hearted, stifled shrug. "You think I know everything about what went on here? Frankly, I have no idea, and I really don't care to find out. Some things are best left not known." Jack let his head dangle under it's own weight, he was obviously too tired, frustrated, and in too much pain to bother with answering petty questions.

"Don't count on it." Tom said, answering for Jack. He gave his hand a through investigation as he spoke, staring at it intensively. "Something's very wrong here."

"So that's it then?" Jack grumbled.

"What do you mean?" Allen asked, his face filled with a look of modest confusion and concern.

Tom let his hand fall back to his side and smiled coldly at Allen and Jack. "This place, the company that owns it, us, everyone else floating in vats downstairs in the basement. Need I go on?"

Allen frowned and lay his ears back. Jack, still looking a bit perturbed just sighed, but perked his ears a bit.

"I'm just saying," Tom continued, worried he'd offended Allen somehow, "If you're wanting to hold on to some fleeting portion of your humanity... It's probably not worth looking for it there."

They cleaned up and treated Jack's wounds at the Medical Bay without exchanging any more than a few words. The quiet made Tom uncomfortable, it left him more time to think about the situation he and the other two were in, and about what he'd done.

______

It didn't take long to get to the security station from the Medical Bay. Following the signs on the wall it only took a couple of turns down a few hallways and they were there. All the while Allen could tell that something was troubling Tom, not just from what he'd said earlier, he could feel it. The continuing quiet between the three of them just made it even more intense. He couldn't help but wonder if Jack could sense it too, or if he was too far out of it to notice.

They stopped just outside the metal door labeled "Security." Allen figured that if he really was supposed to be the leader of their pack, he might as well act like it. So before going any further he had to tend to the needs of his fellow pack-mate.

"Hey" are you alright?" Allen asked putting a paw on Tom's shoulder and finally breaking the silence.

Tom shrugged off Allen's hand nodded as if he were distracted by something more important and sighed.

"I know you're not." Allen said kindly, leaning down to be eye level with the human.

"I'm fine, don't worry about it." He replied stubbornly.

"It's my job to worry about it."

Tom smiled sarcastically. "Right, because you're the big leader right?"

Allen lowered his ears, holding back a cringe, this little pep talk was suddenly not going as well as he'd hoped.

"What, you thought I didn't know?" Tom frowned. "You reek of it! Even now, here you are trying to smooth things over with me because you know I'm not falling in line with your chain of command!"

"Tom I..." Tom cut him off.

"Usually it doesn't happen this quickly, sure... but these are special circumstances are they not!" He grinned bitterly and stared into Allen's eyes. "It all comes so naturally too doesn't it, manipulating people, right?"

The personal, verbal assault caught Allen off guard. Without even thinking about it, the hair on his back and neck stood up and his lips curled back in a display of aggression. He was about to reach out and wrap his hand around Tom's neck when he suddenly realized what he was doing, and quickly stopped himself.

"You don't scare me." Tom hissed. Allen could tell he meant it too, in fact Tom was actually starting to scare him!

Allen felt his face drop as he fought back tears. What was he about to do? He wondered, could Tom actually be right about him? The fur on his back lay back down and suddenly he found himself feeling very weak. He had to make an effort to keep his legs from shaking.

"I..." Allen sighed as he forced himself to keep his composure. "I don't want you to be afraid of me."

Tom crossed his arms and frowned coldly as he stared back at Allen.

Allen glanced over at Jack, who was staring blankly at the two of them. He was hoping to get some emotional support from his mate, but felt an even larger crushing weight when he realized he wasn't going to get any. His lips quivered despite his most earnest efforts to calm them. With a deep sigh he reached out and put his paws firmly on Tom's shoulders; a single tear rolled down the side of his muzzle.

"Tom... I'm... I... you..." He tried to talk, but the words just wouldn't come. Instead he slid his arms down and around his friend and pulled him into a warm embrace.

He surprised himself with his own actions and then closed his eyes as more tears streamed from them. He wasn't sure what he was feeling, or really what was going on, or even if Tom truly meant what he'd said, but it didn't matter. He loved his friend, in some unexplainable way that went beyond usual friendship and it seemed more important than anything to let him know that.

He was surprised again when Tom, once again, began sobbing in his arms.

Allen squeezed him tighter, careful not to crush the egg he had tucked warmly in his shirt, and caressed his back. He then wondered if Tom would also consider this a form of manipulation. Really though, as he thought about it as he held onto his friend, everyone manipulates everyone... So why was Tom so bent out of shape?

When Tom finally regained his composure it was like he'd been reading Allen's mind:

"My father used to beat my mother when I was younger. I used to listen to them fighting from my bedroom, and I plot ways I might be able to kill him without anyone ever finding out.

"It was like he viewed her as an object that he owned... or maybe like a pet... instead of another person. And the games he played... he would toy with your mind, your emotions... Once he found out something about you it wouldn't take long before he found a way to use it to his advantage in some way or another. He was always one step ahead of us, and three steps ahead of everyone else. And even after he was thrown in prison for it, he still somehow got everyone to side with him... I had to move because of it....

I'd sworn to myself that I would never become that."

A chill went down Allen's spine as he realized what had actually happened. Tom was seeing his father in himself and was disgusted by it. And then when he'd attempted to reach out to him, it must have been something his father would have done. The fact that he was pack leader, the one with authority over the group, just drew even more similarities between himself and Tom's father. This hadn't been about himself at all, well maybe just a little.

"So you think that by saving my life, you've become someone like your father?" Jack sounded distracted, yet defensive as he finally joined the conversation. Allen hoped that meant his body was finally adjusting to the meds.

Tom's eyes were full of tears as he pulled himself away from Allen, but his stare was emotionless. He stared at Jack and then at Allen before he allowed himself to slide down the wall into a sitting position. "Something like that... I don't know... I really don't know what to think."

After a long pause Allen sat down next to Tom and put an arm around his shoulder. "Well, regardless of the conclusion you come to my friend, you are far from the person your father was. You're a good person, and you have a good heart... I've only known you for a short period of time and I can already tell. I just hope that you can let yourself, and when the time comes, your kid to see it."

Tom's voice was barely a whisper, full of pain. "So it's OK that I've killed the mother of my child?"

Jack sighed. "Tom, she was a monster."

Tom shot back quickly and with a lot more force than before. "Monsters are evil. Monsters have no soul. She... was NOT a monster."

Allen kneeled in front of the human, taking his face in his paws. He looked him in the eye and reassured him. "But she was becoming one, and she knew it. The same as you did. You did what you thought was best at the time. And I believe you made the right choice. You saved our lives you know."

Tom smiled, and for the first time since the Medical Bay he actually meant it. He pulled the egg out of his shirt and slid his hand over it's surface before tucking it back inside.

"You know what?" He said as he sniffed and wiped the remaining tears off his face. "It was worth it."

Tom stood back up, smirking slightly. Something was clearly different about him, he suddenly seemed more calm, secure, and determined somehow. He then pushed his very short hair back as if he were pushing it off his face and flashed them a grin.

"Wow!" Jack said. "Who are you and what have you done with Tom?"

Allen chuckled as Tom, speaking in third person admitted: "Tom just needed a little help as he did some hardcore soul searching."

"So he's OK now?" Allen asked.

Tom grinned again, making Allen smile in return. Maybe he was capable of leading after all.

"Yeah, I'm more than OK." He said. "I think I know what I have to do know, and now it's something I actually want to do."

Jack looked at him sideways. "What do you have to do?"

"Well my dear lupine, I'll tell you..." Tom said lightheartedly. "I just have to admit that this is the end of the life I once had, and start over."

"It's a daunting thing isn't it." Allen mused. Having just gone through a similar emotional arch, he could relate to how Tom must have been feeling.

"Oh yeah! And 'daunting' is a severe understatement." He pulled out the egg again and looked lovingly at it. "Things are about to get very interesting around here."

Allen and Jack both laughed. "Now that is a severe understatement!"

Tom tucked his egg back under his shirt and walked over to the Security Station's door. "So shall we find out what's behind door number two?" He joked.

Allen looked over to Jack who nodded at him then at Tom. "Yes, I think we're all ready now.