Author's Note: Hello Lads and Ladies!

Swamped and I do truly mean swamped with work. Currently working through a few mental issues on top of all that so it is quite hard to keep track of the writing progress. Just been floating about right about now. Gonna try to present you guys with more stuff coming soon but can't promise anything. Still busy at work.

Edited by: SuperAverageFoxyboy, The Dude who likes Tanks
Enjoy!
-Portal




Louis found that the process of being initiated into the caring hands of the father state to be nearly the exact same as being put through checkups in the livestock basements. You were stripped of all belongings that weren't deemed fit to have, which included everything. You were then given clothing by your new caretakers, in the state's case dark green prison uniforms for the herbivore block. Calming colors to instill a feeling of safety in the same green-colored corridors.

As they led him into the next room, his chained feet making movement a slow and grating process, he saw specialized power tools lying on a table beside an officer with quite a sadistic smile on his face. He knew what would come next.

"No natural weapons of any kind allowed. Sit down here." Louis followed the command without any complaint. The enthusiasm of the officer before him was damped somewhat yet he continued without wasting much time. The small smirk on his face was soon replaced with a puzzled and unsatisfied expression as finished sawing off Louis's antlers.

"You're the first deer I've seen waltz in here without as much as a single complaint about losing your horns..."

"My antlers don't matter to me. They once did..- but no longer do." He stopped the small pause from being any longer than it needed to be. He wasn't among friends here and they would use any small emotional info on him if they couldn't. He wouldn't try to give them any more ammo than they could get.

"Sure you don't... fucking freak." The officer spoke under his breath with minimal breath. An old stag himself, he looked quite like a scrawnier version of Oguma Senior. Louis thought that if they were face to face without any restraints he could overpower him with ease.

They lead him forth to the community cell, standard fanfare for any Herbivore prison.

"Might not be your mansion, but you should fit right in Beastar Louis." The officers erupted into laughter, shutting the door behind him. He could still hear their laughter even as they went along down the hallway back out of the wing.

The room was reminiscent of a barracks. It had a fourteen-person capacity, bunk beds lining all the walls except the one to the hallway. The room looked to be half full, with seven others either doing activities in the middle of the room or being in their bunks. Some of the people here most likely came for similar purposes, a few of the animals striking him as nothing else than poor souls struck by hard and unfortunate situations.

Louis lay down on an unclaimed bed, his shackles having been opened as he entered the cell. He rested his hands behind his head and thought for a few moments of what would come in the future, what was to be.

The company was safe through a funny little trick that Louis had hidden away. Although the shareholders were a force to be reckoned with, they did together hold only 50 percent. The other 50 percent belonged to Louis and by extension, his wife. Because Haru was nowhere to be found and wouldn't be for some time, they would have to try to reach her, unable to change the CEO status of Louis a single bit without breaking the law.

Besides that, Louis had none of his personal assets out in the open. He had caretakers, asset managers, and his campaign team alone had enough power coming up with instructions on what to do in a case such as this. In the end, the trump card that he held was his partner, the woman he had legally married. They couldn't do anything without getting hold of her, and currently, that wouldn't happen. It was ironic that the reason he was in this mess was the same reason why no one would be able to touch him now.

Louis summarized that they would try to sue her for acts of hiding a hybrid child, but Louis also knew that those legislations were tested within Edobutsu, and by the time they became country-wide policy he would have enough plans in order to dodge that too.

No, his problems were not of money or overall management kind. His real issue was time and how to get over a lot of it.

His life had formed a weird obsession with cells, his hands had grown thirsty for the cold metal touch of cuffs and his body begged to be put in chains.

Maybe... or maybe he was just unlucky to be one of the first revolutionaries of his time.

"You're Beastar Louis?"

Louis moved his head up to look in front of his bed. It was a Serow with thick-cut glasses on his face. He looked meek and nervous, yet hopeful and even so excited to meet someone like Louis. He sat up.

"Yes."

The Serow had tears streaming down his eyes.

"You know, it is hard... to live in a place like this... I've... had doubts so often over my choice in a mate... I've lived... In fear... for my daughters' lives... But when we saw you on the screen... it felt good to have someone in our corner..." His voice was trembling, his tears were clogging up his words. The rest of the inmates stopped what they were doing, watching the scene unfold in complete silence.

"What I want to say is... To me, you're a hero... And to see you here makes me feel less regret... that I beat up that cop who was about to-" The rest of the words were eaten up by sobs and further crying, open agony flowing from the person before him. Louis thought the most appropriate reaction was to be touched by the way he had influenced and shaped this person's life. Yet all he felt was a cold spreading out within. This person had been left alone, and he couldn't do anything to fix it.

"I don't think I did enough... I'm sorry sir." Louis folded his hands in front of him and leaned on his knees.

"That's bullshit, Sir." Another inmate, one of considerably more seasoned males, a Kangaroo with defined muscles in their arms, spoke up.

"No one fought for us like you did, no one fought for the lives of hybrids like you did. My daughter for the longest time had no hope until you came on the television. To see my little girl's eyes light up just because you decided to fight for her... I owe you everything man, everything!" He spread his arms out to his side, motioning to everything around him. And then Louis finally felt that small spark that he thought he should've felt before.

Hope.

"I'm glad... but I don't want to feed any of your fantasies. I could've done more and I failed before I did... and with that, I'm sorry for-."

"Just because you failed once doesn't mean you gotta give up now." The kangaroo spoke again, the serow drying his teary eyes with a handkerchief, calming down slightly.

"This place is a Joke. And a Joke doesn't hold a man willing to ignite a revolution... Once you fight out there, I'll be fighting right beside you Beastar Louis... You deserve the sublime title more than the devil in black."

Louis answered with a small smirk and the spark of hope had turned into something close to a small campfire. Not enough to get him moving, not by a long shot, but enough to warm him up from the inside. Enough to comfort him for the night at least.

"I hope you all will get to see it when it happens."

Legosi opened his mouth, hot breath coming from the dry flesh that once had been his gums. He was parched, feeling his mind reel out of control simply because the single most unifying biological urge was not met.

He fever dreamed of lakes composed of sodas, of rain so strong it flooded the basement of this very building. He thought of drowning, surrounded by the cool blue. He thought of ships sailing, of barrels of water in the bottom deck.

His eyes look dazed in the darkness, the stale air accelerating the process of the slow war of biological attrition. He thought of many more ways to die, all of which he preferred so much at this point. He knew that for now, the hope of escape persisted, but it wouldn't hold out. At one point he would rather die than continue to be here.

Legosi closed his mouth and frowned. If he wasn't dehydrated he would probably cry a few tears. Time was in many ways the worst offender when it came to the unfairness of life. When things were good, time became so rapid that you entered as fast as you left them. When things were terrible, time slowed until your paddle of biological progression got stuck in the mud that was closer to hot asphalt than to a stream now.

The door opened and Legosi clamped his eyes shut as the light blinded him. Footsteps lead into the room. He felt hands grab the back of his head, moving him up until the metal cuff around his neck began to hold on tightly at the front, disallowing him from moving away from the wall.

"Water... Just a little... please."

Silence for a moment as he was limp in the grasp of his captor.

"Open your mouth."

Legosi was too exhausted to disobey, opening his mouth. What next followed was a splash of coolness down his mouth and every part of his insides rejoiced as the holy elixir had been given. He continued to drink as he felt his senses come back and take hold once again. He drank until he had to stop for a moment to breathe through his nose only to resume drinking.

"Thank you..." He still held little to no energy to even ask why he was here or why they hadn't killed him yet. He hadn't even opened his eyes yet.

"Soon Melon will come to question you, if you answer correctly perhaps you'll even be granted food." As the caretaker stopped speaking his stomach growled, making Legosi realize just how much he had lost track of time. He had slept in increments, the darkness of his surroundings hiding any sign of outside.

It felt like days, but the senses could easily be tricked.

The door closed and Legosi forced himself into an upright position.

What in Rex's name will I talk about?

He used the last waiting period to imagine exactly how he would get Melon to listen. His message was obviously not taken the right way, and now he had actively hindered one of their missions.

In their eyes, he was the enemy and he would have to answer for his crime, having actively fought against the hybrid kind. He shot and killed one of them after all.

Legosi braced himself against the chains. The one around his neck had the shortest give, barely allowing him to sit up comfortably. He had hand and ankle cuffs that similarly were bound to the wall, both of those however having a lot more range of motion.

How?...

How would telling them he was a hybrid fix anything, and why should they even believe it? He looked like the average wolf.

His head turned in needless circles that turned around the same problem again and again. How would he tell them he was a hybrid? He would've probably spent the rest of his life in the hopeless delirium if not the door opened and for the first time, he braced against the light to see beyond it.

The hand and leg cuffs were disconnected from the wall and he was freed entirely from the neck cuff. Two Omnivora men carried him, their muscles rivaling those of full-grown bears.

They carried him through the basement community that had built itself underground. People were building weapons, giving warnings over the radio system, or marking things down here. If his actions had done anything at all, they had set him down right in the main headquarters, the place where everything was operated from.

They made him free from his cuffs only to restrain him to a chair, the metal bracings holding him down looking strong enough to hold even the two giants that had just transported him here.

Legosi looked around himself, refusing to let the moment go to waste. Even if his attempts at diplomacy would turn out to be useless he still had the chance to use whatever info he could learn right now.

Light bulbs and wiring hung loosely from pipes and staples on the ceiling. They were underground, but where exactly? Legosi took a deep breath. It smelled like concrete, slightly damp and yet still that acrid underlining smell. He heard people talking, noises of small mechanics being assembled, and every now and then the noises of water rushing through pipes.

Legosi recollected perhaps a place in proximity to the sewers beneath housing but couldn't picture any basement system the size of this. The only catacombs that Edobutsu had were the flood drainage tunnels close to the docs. But they would have some surveillance and maintenance teams. So it couldn't be those.

His ears twitched, footsteps approached. Legosi switched through a couple more iterations in his mind. If he eliminated enough possibilities he would surely reach an at least halfway sound explanation.

Personal Basement? Too large. Storage unit? Rarely have basements and even then still would have employees and maintenance... maybe abandoned or infiltrated the crew? Then the owners would notice random batches of space not being available for commercial use... Abandoned perhaps...

Maybe the sewers? But then wouldn't I smell-

A punch sent Legosi back to reality. The punt to his stomach nearly made Legosi vomit as the residual pain crawled through his stomach as if its percussive force was on delay.

"You deserve more, but first, let's talk."

Legosi looked up to see the crooked horns of the Hybrid ring leader of this grouping. Legosi thought to himself that in some other universe, they might have become good friends.

"What exactly did you think of this?" Melon let the letter unfold itself with the help of gravity, dangling it before him.

"I wanted-... to help." Legosi swallowed the urge to throw up, gaining control over his system little by little.

The next punch was to the face, spit flying to the side.

"I mean it..." Legosi whispered, Melon grabbing his face to look into his eyes.

"Those don't look like Wolf eyes, do they? You got a disability or something?" Melon questioned now more out of genuine interest than violent spite.

"My grandfather's eyes... I'm not a full wolf."

Another punch to the head. This time Legosi made little effort to try and move his head back to where it was.

"Your file says something different."

"I tried... to hide my... hybrid self... I mean it when I said... I wanted to help."

Instead of a punch this time Melon laughed. It was far from real and yet not entirely fake. It was the absurdity of Legosi's words that probably made him laugh. Legosi found the notion comforting that at least he wasn't entirely a cause for anger but more one for bewilderment as well.

"I... always wanted... to help you... but killing civilians is not the way..."

This time another punch to the gut, Legosi couldn't stop the urge, and he dry heaved, the water already absorbed by his dried-up system.

"Do you even know how you sound? Taking the moral high ground over bottom feeders swallowing every word of the black bastard?... You kill one of our own and then spin this bullshit about being one of us all from your weird eye mutation... I've never met someone with more gall than you to do something as ridiculous as this..."

Legosi again was certain that he would've cried if he had any tears to give.

"It's the truth..."

"What's your heritage then, I want to hear it."

"Komodo Dragon... my grandfather is-... a Komodo Dragon."

He was there for all to see, an image of weakness. They would string him up and bleed him dry, hang him up as some effigy against the state...

"If you give me a vile of Komodo Dragon venom... I'm immune..."

The few guards beside Melon began to laugh out loud, Legosi a bit confused by the reaction. He looked up to see Melon grab at his forehead.

"Sure, we'll let you be the martyr that'll give Yahya just cause to send his military in here."

"He already has..." That word stopped the laughter and stopped Melon's anger for a split second too. Melon softly crouched down, until he was eye to eye with the restrained Beastar.

"What?" Melon moved up his lips around his muzzle to reveal his sharp teeth.

"Those bombs were an act... of terrorism that put civilian lives at risk... Even if you hadn't... Yahya would've found some reason to attack you... Do you understand now that I wanted to help?..."

Melon stood back up, hand on his chin, thinking for a long and tense moment in which Legosi was growing to suspect that he had outlived his usefulness.

"Get Tenmon." Melon looked down at Legosi.

"Since you know so much about Komodo dragon venom, why don't you tell me it's lethal dose?"

Legosi looked up at Melon and almost smiled. This was the only way that he figured it would be possible for them to change the tides. In some shape or form.

"Even a kiss with a Komodo dragon could kill those that aren't immune... Why would I offer myself as a sacrifice to Yahya's game?... Why would I, with my weird eyes, want to die for my state?"

Melon's gaze was not decipherable. It seemed both stuck in thought and completely resigned.

"People have died for worse causes. Although I have to admit that people who have what you have rarely sacrifice themselves."

"What do I have?" Legosi's question was met with another look of bewilderment that brought to the forefront the absurdity of the situation.

"How did you become a soldier? Never met someone as unaware as you... You're tall, strong, good-looking, and beloved by the city... The fact that you don't know this informs me of your flaw, a lack of intelligence."

Legosi laughed at that and for a moment he forgot all about the restraints, about the punches, he even forgot about the hybrid he had shot and killed. He might as well have been talking to a good friend.

"You wanted me, Boss?" In the doorway to another room appeared a Komodo dragon. He was perhaps in his thirties but didn't look at all like a fighter.

"Tenmon. I need a shot of your venom." Melon's request was met with the awkward moment of asking around for a glass or cup of some kind. Tenmon ran his finger along his teeth and produced a large drop of venom which he carefully dripped into the cup, his finger deep within the cup to minimize the danger of splashing.

"Now Tenmon, I want you to tell me what would happen if our friend here drank this liquid." Melon looked coldly at Legosi. Meanwhile, Tenmon got visibly uncomfortable.

"He would go into shock, the-,... venom would cause his gums to bleed and irritate his whole esophagus... He would at first-...." Tenmon swallowed, noticeably struggling with his words.

"Scream-... possibly fight-... it would end in... septic shock and then cardiac arrest."

"Could you treat it?"

"A small wound, yes... swallowing?... I don't think any surgery in the world could rectify that damage."

"Get whatever you need for a small wound, we'll do a small test." Melon's order sent the Komodo dragon back into the hallways. Legosi made eye contact with Melon again.

"And when the poison has no effect... will you then trust me?..." Legosi looked upon the visage of a man who had been hurt by everyone. The shepherd to a flock of lost souls hated by normal animals. Trusting didn't come easy to people of such standing, but then why would someone like Yahya employ his worst enemy? What would a hybrid spy even get from a cooperation where the end goal was their eradication?

Legosi feared that he knew the answer to that unfortunately. Some hated themselves so much that they would do anything to rid the world of their own perceived terribleness.

"Your parents, are they still around?"

Legosi felt his insides freeze over for a moment. This was the only way they would establish trust, and knock down the walls around them.

"Never knew my father... My mom has been dead for seven years."

"How did it happen?"

"Jumped off a bridge." Legosi looked down, wanting to hide his tears somehow yet he knew that wasn't possible. After a moment of inner conflict, he leaned back, deciding that he had nothing to hide.

Melon looked away, the emotion caused by Legosi's tears were vague enough to let Legosi wonder.

"I don't want to cry over my life, Omnivora needs more help than I do... I want to put a stop to Yahya's reign of terror as much as you do..."

Tenmon returned with various bottles of antiseptics and disinfectants. He placed them all on the table with a somewhat seasoned precision.

"Tenmon... why did you join Omnivora?"

Melon Looked at Legosi disapprovingly for a moment, yet he said nothing to contest Tenmon from actually answering.

"My little brother is a hybrid... Most of my life it was just me and my dad but since Yoshi hatched it's been... rough."

Legosi smiled at the reptile.

"My Grandpa is a Komodo Dragon, for most of my life it was just me and him and the hole in the door to mothers room..."

Tenmon stopped what he was doing to exchange with Legosi.

"Reptilian eyes... I can see it."

"You won't hurt me Tenmon... Besides that small cut, you won't do any harm."

Tenmon smiled and grabbed for a scalpel, following the instruction of his boss. After a small cut had been made, He grabbed the cup and slowly tilted it till the liquid dropped onto the red spot in the blue-gray fur.

As Tenmon leaned back, Melon leaned forward. He looked intently at the small wound, expecting the same reaction that all animals had that come into contact.

The wound remained a wound, the venom merely making his fur wet.

"Your File is empty... Your file in Yahya's office is entirely empty." Melon stood there with a thought-filled glance into space.

"Why the hell is your file empty?"

"I wish I could answer that... but I don't know..."

Melon moved forward closer to the chair, Legosi raising his head to meet the Hybrid's gaze.

"I'll undo the restraints and we'll talk over in the other room. Get you something to eat. You'll tell me everything that you know about Yahya and then about your willingness to help. If you run or go back to the Sublime Beastar I'll find and kill you and everyone important to you..."

"Anything for you to trust me..."

Melon did as promised and Legosi was freed from his restraints. He was led by the men through the rooms. The little basement Community was bigger than Legosi had imagined, at the same time he had ideas that perhaps this wouldn't be the only place where Melon kept others safe.

He saw Mothers, Fathers, Children, Brothers, Sisters, Mates. This place was the true sanctuary that Legosi was fighting for. The only issue was Melon's with or against us mentality. Yet if he was willing to listen to him, a fellow hybrid.

A female Jackal charged forward, held by other members.

"YOU KILLED MY SON YOU STUPID DOG, YAHYA'S PERSONAL BOY-TOY!..." She was hysterical, crying and thrashing. The guilt in Legosi's heart became as heavy as steel as it sank in his chest.

"That's what happens," Melon said, the neutral expression of the Geopard being one of melancholy and sadness.

Legosi thought of the bomb that killed Captain Ulysses and Lieutenant Gonzo. He thought for a moment if he wanted to say what came to mind but didn't do so.

They sat in another much smaller room at a table, the guards leaving the room.

"Can I write a letter to her?"

"What?" Melon raised his brow.

"I want to apologize for killing her son..."

Melon leaned back in his seat, grabbing at his forehead yet again.

"I don't think that would be in good taste... but knock yourself out." Among the clutter of the room, Melon gathered a notepad and a ballpoint pen from his pocket.

"Before you do that... why don't you tell me why you've been working for Yahya and what your plan was."

Out of all the people that Legosi had ever told his stories to, Melon was easily the one with the least understanding of nature. At multiple points, the Geopard stopped him to lament and critique his ability to make choices.

Legosi deserved it, he supposed. It still didn't feel good to be chastised for trying his best, but his best had been idealistic and clueless behavior.

"I just need to ask... why put civilians at risk?"

"Because those damned ignorant wall flowers are silent murderers." Melon burst out.

"A Hybrid calls for help, he's ignored. Law is submitted against hybrids, nothing is done. Someone is different than normal, he's berated. What doesn't fit into their mold is chewed on and then spit out, there's no way into their society unless you were born into it. We can't hold jobs down, we can't hide what we are. And for that, they'd rather kill us than accept that life is not black and white. All they do each and every day is tune out what's really happening, feeding this view of the world that the only version of events happening needs to be exactly as dictated by what came before... Change or better yet deviation from their path is met with... open hatred. As if we spat in their face... I have children down here that in their lives have never spent an entire day out in the sun."

Legosi listened to Melon speak and then felt that this was right somehow. If anything, then this was right. Here he would be able to do what he needed to do.

"They deserve a chance to learn-"

"You can say that. You pass off as one of them. We don't. The only way they'll speak to us is with a gun to their heads."

"If your only language is violence then they'll think you aren't capable of reasoning."

Melon jumped up from his chair to look down at Legosi. The expression that Legosi was making was just soft enough to stop Melon from exploding in rage.

"I'm starting to regret not having killed you while you were restrained."

"If not for my girlfriend I wouldn't fight back." Legosi looked down in shame. The answer caught Melon by surprise, the Geopard sank back into his chair. There was a momentary silence that permeated every part of this little universe.

"I don't know what you're trying to get at here Legosi. Being depressed or feeling worthless is a surplus here. Whatever help you're trying to give would kill us. But you are correct, Yahya will use whatever reason to get rid of us. To him, we're a disease festering in his ecosystem."

"I know someone with resources... I don't know how willing he would be to help but he has a good heart." Legosi's hopeful words were met with a dismissive shake of the head.

"It's nice that you have friends with saving accounts-"

"I know the owner of the black market, and as far as I know he too isn't a friend to the Sublime Beastar."

Now Melon was listening.

"I could set up a meeting with him... would that help in any way?"

"Oh, that would help... someone in our corner..." Melon nodded.

"I truly mean it... I might not be a good strategist but if you give me a job I'll do it."

"You go and set up that meeting and then perhaps I got use for you after all..." Melon sat up from his chair.

"The next time you want to talk, take a train ride. The conductors and train drivers will maybe even let you-... argh forget it, you're too dense for subtlety. Next time you want to talk, go to the driver cabinet at any train driving in the metro." Melon extended his hand to Legosi and pulled him to a stand. Legosi grabbed onto his hand and Melon pulled him close to himself.

"You must keep your naivety in check... The world isn't some colorful mystical place where the good always wins. If someone is planning to kill you, no amount of good-hearted words will dissuade him."

"I'll-, I'll keep it in mind."

When they left the room Legosi handed the letter to one of the guards.

"Give it to the Jackal whose son I... just give it to her." With those last words, Legosi followed Melon upstairs. As he walked through the maintenance tunnels he could smell the sewage stench as they walked further from the main cluster of rooms. After the last flight of stairs, they finally entered the abandoned Martinsson Grocery Store.

"Bring your friend with you on the train... Perhaps you'll actually manage to help us."

Legosi wandered out into the Black market, his belongings given back to him at doors guarded by even more Omnivora members.

He felt the nice material from the small box, the only real object of importance to him. He pocketed it and walked out. He felt the adrenaline catch up to him now. Only someone as clueless as him would be able to talk himself out of sure death at the hands of a mob boss simply by seeing so innocuous that even the head of the one organization that was known by all for being hard to trust towards others...

He walked along the pathways and felt like he should buy a lottery ticket at the next convenience store. Remembering that he was unlucky enough to get into the crosshairs of Omnivora in the first place he disregarded the idea.

"LEGOSI!"

A familiar voice, one that he was glad to hear. When he turned the wolfess nearly tackled him. She was close to tears.

"Where in Rex's name were you? Why didn't you come home? What happened to you?"

"I got... a little beat up."

"More than a little." A male voice behind him. He turned slightly to look at Bill coming along.

"How did you get out of there?"

"I showed Melon that I was a hybrid, I was immune to Komodo dragon poison."

"THEY POISONED YOU?" Juno was close to losing her mind as Legosi put his hands around her.

"No... I needed to show them I was a hybrid, so I asked for it. I'm here now, you don't have to be afraid, I'm alright."

She seemed to calm down a little, burying her head in his chest.

"After that what happened?"

"I offered my help in any way... so I offered to introduce him to Tokugawa, both have a common enemy." Legosi turned his head away from Bill after he finished speaking.

"It's ok... I'm fine." Legosi brushed his hand over her back.

"Well, you might get a chance to talk with Tokugawa coming up right now." Bill's words caused the group to all look at him, Bill looking straight ahead at the end of the street. Juno didn't relinquish her grip but turned her head.

At the end of the street stood a group of well-dressed lions, the tallest standing out front wearing glasses.