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Between helping the town recover and trying to spend some peaceful quality time with Kelsey for a change, Erik had figured out the framework of his plan. It was only two days later, but now that the humans knew where their target was, it wouldn't take them too long to get back to it.

A large quadrotor whirred through the sky, the giant rings around the propellers tilting and canting to accommodate for the wind. Underneath the drone's framework lay a man, clad in a grey trenchcoat like all other agents. As he zipped along, wearing the drone like a butterfly-shaped backpack, he received a call, and answered his arm.

“71."

“Sitrep."

“Approaching last known location. Appears to be in densely forested area. Must proceed on foot."

“Understood."

Hanging up, the agent began to lower his drone from the sky, buzzing down over a grassy field and landing gracefully on his feet at the edge of the forest. As he had anticipated, the forest was overgrown with thick brush, branches everywhere, and vines that would make navigating it wearing a giant metal backpack impossible. He took off the contraption and dropped it on the ground. Were it ever found, he knew they couldn't use it, and so, didn't care to secure it.

AA71 began to creep his way into the bush, walking around in a robotic way. He analyzed every step as his foot crunched on leaves, and his hand brushed away errant branches like they were thrown objects to be intercepted. It was clear this one was just as professional as the last, but this time, had an objective location to reach. Within his mind, he could see AA242: a kilometer ahead, unmoving and unresponsive. He could only assume dead, as no calls were answered. As he was told, he didn't come back at all.

A few minutes of hiking, and AA71 finally came upon his goal. AA242's bloodied and fly-swarmed corpse lay in the undergrowth, face down.

“I see. So they have eliminated 242, as 839 before him. Very effective, these people." He spoke to himself, as he approached the corpse. “His components must be returned."

As he knelt down to the body to recover the chips and nifty gadgets the agents were known for, he suddenly found himself in an unexpected ambush. Like he were a mousetrap, Brutus swung up from underneath a pile of leaves and branches, his mandibles closed around the midsection of the agent, and pinned him along with his arms to a large pine tree. Like clockwork, Jan and the male squirrel guard darted out from the bushes and ripped both of the gloves off. Kelsey pounced and snagged the hat, flailing and ripping it to shreds, while Tom ran out and bit into the arm, tearing out yet another chip. It all happened so fast, one moment he was about to retrieve some old parts, the next, he was incapacitated, robbed of all of his gadgets, and staring down dozens of extremely angry anthros. Several other villagers gathered around, surrounding him with primitive spears, crouched and ready to strike at a moment's notice, even Jarvis was there. AA71 was utterly helpless.

“Wildlands citizens, what's the meaning of this?" He asked.

“Humans aren't allowed in the Wildlands." Jarvis warned, his tone deep and brooding.

“But we have created and maintained the Wildlands. We are allies."

They laughed, but darkly, their threatening aura keeping the atmosphere in the copse down. “Your agent slaughtered six of our townspeople, and injured dozens more. That's not something an 'ally' does."

“He must have had a good reason." AA71 replied simply.

“Just as we have reason to keep your kind out of the Wildlands..."

Erik appeared from the woods finally. “He had a reason, but not a good one."

AA71 snapped to his duties, seeing Erik. “Acquisitions Agent 71. You are under arrest f-"

He stopped as Kelsey punched him in the jaw with a satisfying crack. “Shut the fuck up!"

Erik continued. “You've done enough damage trying to punish me for your own crimes. Your damaging days are over."

The agent thought for a moment. “You have worked hard to bring this cadre of rebels to halt the recovery of the agent you no doubt slew. You knew of all of my tools. What is it you want?"

“First off, I want answers."

AA71 shook his head. “I don't answer to you." Despite his helpless position, it seemed he still didn't care for question period.

“I can do this all day." Brutus chuckled in his deep voice, his huge mandibles still easily pinning the enemy to the tree. “You'll answer questions sometime."

“I will not comply." He was still not receptive to dialog.

Erik looked to Kelsey and nodded, as he took something from his pocket. “Do it."

She palmed his head with her large paw and pulled it down to expose the back of it. Sure enough, there was the same square that AA242 had. “I will not cave to torture."

“I don't care about torture, I'm not one of you. Just answers." Erik approached with the object, a large circular piece of metal, with a hollowed-out section inside of it. “Do you know what this is?"

“An archaic object, like all things you possess outside of civilization."

What a terrible answer, Erik thought. “It's a speaker magnet, quite powerful still. I can only imagine what this would do to your chip." He took AA242's chip and let it go next to the magnet, sticking to it instantly, peeled it off and did it again for show. The agent was silent, not wanting to give an inch or show any fear. He peeled the chip off again and threw it back with the corpse. “Unless you want me to scramble yours, you should start talking." No response. Erik moved it closer to the back of the agent's head, seeing the pull of the chip underneath stretching out the skin. The agent uncharacteristically trembled a bit. The magnet continued its magical work. The agent winced finally, his brain starting to show emotion, and pain.

“Gah!" The people looked at him, shocked that he was actually acting out. “Stop! Ah!"

“I said I want answers."

“I-I can't... answer you!"

“Wrong." The magnet finally made as close of contact to the chip as it could as the agent grit his teeth.

“Argh! This feeling! Stop!"

“Answers!"

“Wh-what do you want to know?!" The agent finally cracked. It seemed the man under the brain chip was in fact a somewhat sensible person.

“First off... what is this chip?" He let up a bit on the magnet.

He wheezed, like a great burden had just been taken off of his shoulders. “I-it's a centralizer chip. All us agents got one."

He let up on the pull slightly. “What's it for?"

“The centralizer inhibits personality and emotions, except when required for investigative purposes."

That sounded like a good answer. “Alright. Next, what are you doing here?"

“I'm here to get the lost components back."

“Not to arrest me?"

He sighed. “I'm to arrest any fugitives I happen across, you are one of them, but not my primary mission. I was only sent to recover Acquisitions Agent 242."

Kelsey finally got involved in the questioning. “Why did your agent attack the big white wolf?"

He looked to her. “The white wolf agreed to help him, but then must have turned traitor after Acquisitions Agent 242 explained the need to cull corruption. Contact was lost at that point." It seemed that information was briefly transmitted before he lost his chip.

She sighed lightly. “That might actually exonerate him..."

Erik took his attention back again. “Here's a question. I assume 242 and 839 are sequential. Why are there so many Acquisitions Agents if people don't escape from the cities?"

“Acquisitions Agents are most often used within the cities to catch hidden fugitives. But you are incorrect. People do escape from the cities."

“Really?"

“It is exceedingly rare, and most are found dead not long after, if not from attack, then from elements. As your companion stated, humans are not allowed in the Wildlands." His eyes looked over to Erik, head still unable to move. “You are merely the first to escape from this city. That is, 24932. And hopefully the last."

“I have one more question..." He spoke in a threatening way again. “Why did the old elites bother with Operation Insolence?"

The rest of the people there looked to him strangely. Could he actually get these origins out of an agent?

“I will not comply." He responded, slipping back to his old ways. Erik tightened up on the magnet again, he had been letting it slip for good behavior. “Operation Insolence! Talk!"

“O-Operation Insolence was a failure!"

It was quiet for a moment as he lightened up on the magnet again. “A failure?"

“Operation Insolence was deemed a failure by the Imperial Science Commission, NT4, Geneva. It was scrapped and its documentation destroyed."

Everyone looked to each other, in one way or another, they had heard the term. Jarvis looked to the agent. “A failure?"

Erik just couldn't understand. “How can it be a failure? The Wildlands are populated with generations of healthy anthros. The land is healthy outside of the cities. Why did they decide it was a failure?"

“That information has been deemed classified by the Imperial Science C- nnngh!" He grit his teeth as the magnet pulled at the centralizer chip even harder. He finally explained as if he were simply going through the motions. “Operation Insolence w-was not designed to create hybrid life."

“What...? It wasn't intended to create anthros?"

“The Imperial Science Commission stated that the gain-of-function was intended to create animal life."

“Create animal life...? Those who were attacked were just supposed to mutate into animals?"

“A return of the afflicted to harmony with nature was desired."

He tried to process this information. “That's almost as bad as what actually happened to them. If they turned into animals, they don't know how to be animals, they would just get eaten and die."

“A return of the afflicted to harmony with nature was desired." The answer was just as cold as it was before. “Upon witnessing the failure of the experiment, the project was scrapped, and the survivors were observed for a time."

“For a time?"

“An observation period of two years was declared before it became obvious the experiment would not bear any fruit. The Wildlands were disregarded as a relevant scientific space and left to grow over."

“So that's it? Mutate people, and when it doesn't work out perfectly, just scrap the whole damned thing and leave it to rot?"

Once again, he uttered the simple answer, “A return of the afflicted to harmony with nature was desired."

The crowd murmured in disgust. Erik turned and stomped his foot at the revelations here. “Fuck! They didn't try to create some paradise on Earth, didn't want to create new and exotic life and better the Wildlands, or our understanding of nature! They just wanted us to die and be a free burial!"

"That was the intention."

Erik whirled about and pointed menacingly at the agent. “Shut the fuck up! It's evil! Your whole foundation, every cell, everything, is fucking evil! You killed my family! My friends! Billions!" He stuck the magnet back to his head with a thump, and watched the agent squirm with cruel delight. “Fuck you! Fuck your Emperors! After I've scattered you to the wind, I'll wipe your shit hives off the fucking planet for w-"

Kelsey put her paw on Erik's shoulder. “Honey. Stop." Her paw slid its way down his arm to one hand, and pulled it away from the agent, wrapping her fingers between his. He cleared his laser focus from the agent to her. Her beautiful face, the piercing ice blue eyes, the merle pattern nullifying the green world behind her, the little wound on her snout. All he could focus on was her face, usually full of love, now mostly concern.

“I-it's madness...!"

“Shh." She shushed him and stroked her paw through his growing hair. Her touch was as soothing as his was to her. “What happened happened. Nature is bigger than them. They failed. We exist. I exist. Nobody can undo any of that, and if they could, you wouldn't want that, would you?" She explained to him, trying to break his aggression. “Just... let go of the past, love. Please."

His eyes darted back and forth across her face as he thought about it. Calm slowly washed over him, like her paw could just suck the anger out of him. He nodded gently, and looked to the agent, still keeping the magnet on the chip.

The agent looked to them, reading their emotions as best he could comprehend. “Y-you two are lovers?"

Kelsey answered immediately. “Yes."

“Love? Truly?"

“Yes. What of it?" Erik asked.

The agent was silent for a moment as he processed this information. “I never thought for a moment that love between a human and 'anthro' was possible."

“Why not?"

“We were told... it was impossible. That we were too different. That we would be the death of them."

“We - they – are people just like me. We're all capable of learning, adapting, improving who we are through our experiences. Growing. Her and I have grown together, and will continue to grow together. They've just fed you more lies."

The agent had no response. Just quiet contemplation, in between the odd wracking pain from the chip being fried. Kelsey looked to Erik with a toothy smile.

“Alright, Acquisitions Agent 71... here's what's going to happen. I am going to release you. You are going to take whatever you need of 242 back, and you are going to tell your Emperors and anyone who ever asks that Erik Barnes, whom you knew as Cishet Whitedevil, is dead." He made sure to emphasize that word. “He was killed shortly after his escape from 24932 from an infection brought on by removal of the chip. His body was found in the woods. He did not get to spread any corruption. The white wolf lied to 242. He was killed after aggression towards other denizens of the Wildlands. The topic will not be broached further. We're going to be left alone. Forever. Do you understand?"

The agent looked to him, his eyes turning bloodshot from all the stress to his head. That chip would probably be scrambled forever. “...Yes. I understand."

Erik looked to Brutus and slowly nodded. Brutus didn't think it was a good idea, but relinquished his grasp anyway, as the agent slumped to the ground, catching his breath.

“Let's make good on our arrangement." Erik waved his hand to him, motioning for him to take 242's body and leave.

AA71 remarked, as he struggled up to his feet, “It's hard to maintain an arrangement with a man who died weeks ago." He approached the corpse again, picking it up over his shoulder, and taking all three chips, stuffing them into his pocket. He turned and left the area, the anthros all around him watching with highly scrutinizing eyes. They didn't want to take their eyes off of him for even a second, not after last time. They followed him, armed to the teeth, all the way through the bush, to where he had left his quadrotor. Strapping it on and preparing his other equipment, he activated it and took off with a whoosh. People watched in awe as he soared away into a speck in the sky, carrying the rotten body of 242.

Kelsey hugged Erik as Jarvis strode up to him. “Well, that was pretty bold. Didn't think it would work, to be honest. Do you think they're really gone?"

“I hope so. But we should prepare for the possibility of them coming back. I'm sure we haven't heard the last of the Emperors and their goons."

Kelsey closed her eyes slightly, exhausted from the day. The stress had built up, and then was unceremoniously dropped. “Hey, can we all just... go home? Having to deal with those agents just... they make my skin crawl." Her hand made sure to find his again, she couldn't help but be in contact with him.

“Yeah, we should go back and tend to our families, some are still in the hospital. We should go check on..." He grumbled a bit. “Colton."

She sighed, knowing there was probably something new to hear about there. “Ugh. That guy..."

The villagers returned home and did indeed go to their loved ones. Many were still recovering, many were still in mourning. Colton was one of the recovering ones. Kelsey and Erik entered the building again to find him conscious, but woozy, laying in a bed, wrapped almost completely in different colored scraps of cloth.

“Ah, you're awake. We have to talk." Erik said sternly as he approached.

Surprisingly, despite his groggy voice, Colton responded happily. “Yes, I'm sure that we do. Go on, please."

The response was uncanny, but he continued. “We couldn't help but notice that you no sooner left town, recovered, that you returned with an agent in tow."

“Yes..." He answered.

Kelsey looked at him strangely. “Hold on. Is that remorse I detect?"

“It is. I regret... a lot."

Erik wasn't sure what was going on, but he tried to continue before he lost his train of thought. “And... you and him fought? After you brought him there? What's up with that?"

“At first, he only seemed interested in getting you, Erik. Which, he called you by some other name, I don't remember now." His gravelly voice was softer and lighter this time around. “But as we got near the town, we talked more, and... he said he had to purge the corruption left by interaction with you. I know this didn't just mean Kelsey, and the rest of the Deckers, but much of the town, as well." He barely shook his head, not able to move much in his wounded state. “That wasn't right. I was mad at you, Erik, not... everyone. So I turned on him."

“I see." Erik couldn't help but feel that Colton did the right thing.

“And after?" Kelsey shrugged.

“Well, he hurt me badly, one shot, I think. I went down fast. And... I don't know how this happened, but... I had a dream. When I was down."

“A dream?"

“Or... something. Everything was dark, but I was there, and I was speaking to... myself."

Both Erik and Kelsey were curious. “Go on." They both said, in unison.

“There, with myself, I spoke. We spoke. About things in the past. Old memories of the better times. But then, he – I – started to antagonize myself. That I kept getting nearly killed. That I ruined my relationship with you, Kelsey. That I hated Erik so much. All the dumb things I had done. I was verbally beat down by myself, and helpless to stop it, in this dream of mine." He explained. “But then, I felt illuminated, right there, when I told myself I did one thing right: that I tried to save the town. It was a just thing to do. I told myself that I had to keep doing what's right and good, or I'd die for no good reason next time. Then I clapped myself on the face and... woke up. On the ground."

They seemed fascinated to her it in such detail. It reminded Erik of his own dream. “That's quite the dream. Vision, even."

“I knew I had to make it right. I couldn't let that guy continue. So, I got up and... well, you know the rest."

Erik nodded at him. “You did the right thing, fighting that guy. Twice."

He sighed, closing his eyes. “But, I... I have been bad, Erik. Look at me now. Only a few weeks ago, I had almost no scars or injuries. Now I have a damaged lung, a hole and a slash across my chest, a cut ear and left shoulder. Cut on my left arm. A huge slash up my back. Nearly died three times. I'm a disaster... all because I have been bad." He tallied all of his injuries. “That dream, my near-death, whatever it was, was a wake up call for me. My life had been coming apart for weeks, everything went wrong, and it was my fault. Not yours, not Kelsey's, not those guys at the crossroads. It was me." He rambled on. They let him continue. “My pride, my jealousy, my anger, my impatience... they kept getting me into trouble, into failures. And it cost me nearly everything. It cost me... you, Kelsey." His eyes looked to her, grief in them. “And it cost the town six people. I have to turn over a new leaf, as they say. Once I'm able to walk again... I need to be better. For good."

Kelsey put her paws on her hips. “I'm impressed, Colton. Maybe you really have changed."

He nodded slowly. It hurt to move his back. “I can only hope so. But with that out of the way... I need to apologize." He looked to her, those piercing blue eyes he used to dream about had a different look to them these days. He could see they were full of love for Erik. “Kelsey, I'm sorry for what I did. I was reckless, impulsive, and deceptive. If I could have just waited, a little bit, we could have been married by now. But I couldn't. I didn't deserve to have you, not like that. And that's why fate made sure I didn't." He turned his attention to Erik again. “And Erik... I'm sorry for how I've been to you. Sure, you were potential competition, and that's just nature. But I was more than reasonably combative, I was jealous, I was prideful. Losing to you in that ring made me almost wipe the village out with that madman. But I deserved to lose, because of that, because of how I was." He swallowed hard, like he was forcibly swallowing his pride. “I'm glad that I lost to someone who truly cares about her. I'm sure you'll take good care of her."

It was touching to hear him so different. “Thank you, Colton. I promise I will."

“And, uh, sorry about the scar. It's so much more visible on skin than fur." He chuckled a bit under his breath.

Erik ran his fingers over the three gouges on the left side of his face. “It's fine, looks more like I belong here."

“We had a good fight, though, didn't we, Erik? Nearly a mutual knockout. You're one tough little guy."

He nodded to Colton. “You, too. After all the damage you've taken lately, any of us would have died."

Colton smirked and craned his head over to the other side this time. “And one more... I apologize to you, Lisa. Thank you for spending so much time fixing me."

Lisa was nearby, still dealing with other patients. “You can thank me by replenishing my supply of thread, kid." She chuckled. “I don't want to cauterize any more of you."

The air seemed to be cleared, for the first time ever, around Colton. They bid him farewell and began to return home. They talked as they continued to walk, hand-in-paw through the town, still eerily quiet as the townspeople grappled with the events of the last few days.

“Amazing, that Colton. Do you really think he's changed?" She asked him.

“Nothing can shake a man like profound loss. He's lost almost everything, like he said. And being so close to death so many times... yeah, I believe him."

“Do you... forgive him?" She shrugged, as if it was somewhat absurd.

He shrugged right back. “I do, sort of."

“But you guys fought. Nearly killed each other."

“Yeah. It's a guy thing, I guess."

She laughed lightly under her breath. “I guess I have a lot to learn about 'you guys'."

He pulled her a bit closer as they kept walking. “We have a lot of time to learn about, well, everything."

“First thing I have to ask about... Colton said the agent called you by another name?"

He groaned. “Yeah, when they unfroze me, they 'assigned' me a name, the name was a prank. I'm not using it, and you wouldn't even get the terms if I mentioned them."

“Better or worse than Skinny?"

“Way worse. I'd rather just be Skinny forever."

She grinned. “Well, Skinny, think you can pick me up?" She tried to jump up into his arms, and he rapidly responded to catch her. She was definitely a heavy hold for him, but he managed to get his arms under her, and she held on with her hands clasped behind his neck. A relatively flawless bridal carry. “Heh, so strong."

“I'll get stronger some day." He wheezed.

“We'll do some weight training for you." She snickered and licked his cheek.

“Heh, like I don't have enough to do. Gonna have to take on Kerry's duties now, too."

“Ah, yeah... well, that's good fitness, too."