Author's Note: Hello lads and Ladies

It's been a long little while. What exactly happened? Well depression did.

I really wish I could leave with good news of me hoping this blows over or anything, I just don't have enough Info to do so. But... well

Edited by: SuperAverageFoxyboy, The Dude who likes Tanks

Enjoy!

-Portal

The facility was all parts as cold and abrasive as he had expected it to be. The staff here didn't see Yajuu as a true Animal, nothing but a glitch in the system that deserved to be wiped clean.

The people around him were treated like a disease. Protocolled, rigorously kept in check to account for any unknown stress factors in both Physiology and Psychology. He hated the questions by the doctors most, and even more he hated having to undress for the physical examinations.

Slowly Yajuu became aware of all the stories in history in which the different hid from the broad spectrum, those that labeled themselves as normal even though they had no say in what was and wasn't normal.

He sat at the table of some corner office, waiting for a new doctor to arrive to tell him what would happen today, the last few days they had hooked him up to machines in order to test his sleep quality. A process that robbed him of relaxation. He wondered how many people had already snapped, and told as much to the Omnivora contact in the security detail that he swapped information with. Being a Mole in Melon's game was the crown on the mountain of problems he had.

He craved sleep and already missed his apartment. He shared a room with other Deer type hybrids. Half carnivore, half herbivore.

His face instantly lit up when he saw Carol enter the room. He jumped up, ready to give a hug when she motioned for him to sit down again. If she wasn't smiling he would've been hurt.

"You don't know how good it is to see you..." He spoke in relief and sighed. He noticed now how bizarre he looked. He had been given gray clothing to signify his patient status. She wore a lovely light blue shirt, jeans, her almost sporty trainers, and her doctor's coat. He could cry from just seeing her and, now that she was standing closer, smelling her.

"It's nice to see you too." She stood on the opposite side of the tables. It had been a week since they last saw each other. They stared motionlessly back at each other and Yajuu again got the urge to cry. This beautiful thing that had enfolded in front of him and now he wasn't allowed to have it anymore.

Tears streamed down his face and he held hands in front of his face. There was no violent urge within him, no burden of aggression nor hatred but at this moment he wanted to tear the world apart. He began to loudly cry, his body heaving with huge sobs. Every Mammal, every bird, every reptile, and every fish in the sea was allowed a mate, and by the time he was given one, the world put them on opposite sides of the playing field.

She was in the purest sense so palpable and close yet infinitely far away.

Suddenly there was a small click that Yajuu would have nearly missed if he hadn't paused crying for just a moment. He peered up and saw her having opened a side door, standing under the camera. She moved her lips over exaggeratedly, no sound escaping them.

'Play along'

There was little acting needed to keep his tear-filled face in the farce of suffering as she approached to heed him in the second room like a good doctor. She came to his side and herded him through the door, a stairwell within. She lead him downstairs to the Basement level. Through a few doors until they stood in a room with a few field beds lining the walls. It was the sleeping quarters of some long-shift staff. He heard the door behind him click shut and then the jingle of keys that locked the door.

Yajuu looked through the room, now noticing the main feature of this space. No cameras.

His girlfriend's touch was softer than any touch Yajuu had ever felt in his life. She held the tissue firmly and began to gently brush away the wetness from his face, both symbolically and literally cleaning him of his sorrow. They looked at each other again with that silent staring and then clutched each other like Shipwreck survivors.

Her kisses were passionate yet equally gentle and oh-so-lovely. They sank to the hard linoleum floor, neither of them caring as they sank deeper and deeper into each other, bridging the species gap, and closing the loop for a while.

After they had become whole, Yajuu's physical hitch keeping them locked tight after it was done, they lay in each other's arms, satisfied in the most base way possible.

"I'm not strong, Carol. Not strong enough for this."

"Neither am I." Her words of agreement neatly pushed him closer to the edge of true madness, yet he remained still.

"I never ever fought back. Not once, I knew I was too strong. If I ever once harmed any of the herbivores or even slightly made it known I could keep a wolf back my life would have been even more shredded and destroyed than it already was. And I didn't want to lose that tiny bit of calm that I had fought so hard to have... My only childhood friend is the terrorist that this city is turning every stone over for and I can't even fight for things I care for."

He sat up, still clutching her as if letting go meant losing her forever. His hands ruffled through the fur on her back, his eyes peering deeply into her eyes that revealed the utter brilliance under the surface.

"I don't want to lose you. You're the best thing that ever happened to me, no exaggeration. I don't want to think about how possibly finite this thing between us is, I don't even want to think about this little moment in some clinic backroom that we have to hide because neither of us have proper homes to return to. Me because of law and you because of involvement in this shit show..." His tone and demeanor made him again look incredibly young to her. All that maturity only underlined how scared and fragile he was. She held on equally tight.

"I want this to end because we grow apart or your old flame returns or maybe I take you for granted and I become a douchebag. I want to hate your music taste and get dumped because I'm not good enough for your family or high society restaurants." She giggled and he laughed, his hug warm around her.

"I want this thing between us to grow or wilt without Yahya having any damn say in it. I want to run away with you, I want to allow myself to be brazen and reckless... I want to hold you close whenever I feel like it." He squeezed her as tears streamed down his face.

"Teach me to fight. If you don't know then we'll learn together... but be my angel, please. I'm gonna do whatever you say as long as you say it. Whatever it is, even if I have to break a bone or walk out in town square naked. Just say it."

They looked into each other's eyes and Carol again floated in that beautiful space that reminded her so much of teenage rebellion. What else was she expecting from being with a younger man? Just the scenario was different. The play had been acted out before, but the stage dressing was different and the villain was a nightmare.

"I want you to hold on for a day... maybe two. And then I'll come get you, I don't know where but I'm not leaving you here."

"I love you." Another intense kiss that left them gasping for air. They slipped back into their clothing and Yajuu gave her a quick kiss.

"I love you." She said and kissed him again, waving him goodbye.

After her day of head doctor responsibility was over she walked over to the security block. She had the keycards to the whole building, and the legitimacy of Strightman had been reinforced through the arrival of the strange tattooed men every now and then. To learn that Yajuu was Melon's childhood friend had been somewhat of a shock yet it wore off quickly enough. Hybrids needed to stick together after all and it only seemed fair for them to do exactly as they needed to do. Sticking together.

She opened the door to the security office, a dimly lit room filled with screens and the chatter of radio in the background. She passed by the security personnel who greeted her like it was any other day.

Strightman was on the other side of the office, ordering his men around. It had to be stated that his new captain's uniform fit him incredibly well.

"Strightman?"

He turned his upper body, looking over his shoulder. Immediately his quite stern face eased up once he recognised her.

"Yes, madam?"

"May we talk privately for a moment?"

"Yes of course, right in my office." He led her to a well-kept room and closed the door behind him.

Standing in his office did not give her any comfort or confidence at all. More so she felt worse somehow. Like the ridiculousness of what she was asking was catching up to her.

"What can I do for you?" He spoke with true kindness, his cap pushed up on his forehead so that she could look into his eyes even if he tilted his head down.

"Neither I nor Yajuu can do this... This isn't fair-"

"Fair?" Strightman met her gaze with a sparkle that seemed to be more lively than his usual look.

"You're correct, none of this is fair. Obstute observation Doctor Carol." He crossed his arms in front of his chest. Leaning against his desk he looked like one of the teachers of her youth that felt themselves better than the other teachers. His face was almost amused.

"The very reason I stand here is because it's not fair."

"You can't use us like tools for your operation."

All kindness drained from the features of the accommodating police animal. He stood straight and pulled his police cap into a proper position.

"You're gonna listen to me now Carol. I've been married for a good ten years now, met her in a cafe and we knew we were meant to be. Felt great at the time, for about six months.

Then my parents found out and I was spat out of my family home like a leper that carried some vicious contagion. Didn't even get a word in, they had packed my bags for me, accepted me for one last dinner and the next morning I moved into the police academy full time."

His telling mirrored her own hatred for her parents.

"Now, I learn that I'm gonna be a father. And instead of joy, I feel fear. Fear because I know my child will be born in a world of such monstrous disregard for all things Hybrid. They will be subject to discrimination, to medical tests, to all kinds of bullying and mistreatment. I begin to think I shouldn't have been a father at all."

His eyes were teary and his voice ever so slightly wavered. He wiped away the tears with a jerky and frustrated gesture.

"I fight with her about it all the time. Her coping mechanism is resolute optimism that crosses the threshold of delusion and I can't-..."

She didn't dare interrupt his story even when there was a considerable pause. Words might've lacked for a minute yet the emotions never did. They were both practically drowning in the now oppressive pressure in the room.

"You're not the only one suffering here. And the only way for us to make things fair again is to fight for it. If you just run away nothing would change. It's not fair, but it's not fair for any of us. You have to accept it."

Strightman looked straight at her.

"Soon this will be over. Either we all go to prison, get gunned down in the street, or we take this country by force. I hate every option, but I'd rather my child be born a revolutionist than a victim by design."

Carol stared back and felt a sting in her head as she remembered that she had already had this conversation with the people on the other side.

"No matter what I do I'll be a tool, is that what you're saying?"

Strightman looked like he was debating something, Carol didn't have enough patience for it.

"Say what you think, more sugar coating and I'll go crazy."

"Perfect place for that here." His comment was ignored by both of them after it had been spoken. It was as if a third party had spoken through the Cheetah.

"If you're so keen on acting you can just run away yourself, but no one is gonna help you with that. Being a tool has a lot of downsides but in dire times it has one giant perk. Whoever is using you is gonna look out for you as long as you are more worthy alive. You listen to us and they trust you, Yajuu was Plan A till you got along. But for the cover to stay intact you two are needed right where you stand."

"This game of telephone can go to hell. How do I talk to Melon?"

Strightman looked back and this time the smile returned. Perhaps this defiance was what fit her best, no matter where she stood. Making her own path was the easiest solution most times anyway.

"Take a train ride tomorrow, go to the front car, and wait. Simple as that."

Before Carol could turn away her manners nagged just enough to cause her to look at Straightman again. Strightman himself was looking away, his eyes giving away just how big the boulders on his shoulders were.

"Even if Yahya dies. A civilization built with guns is just another dictatorship."

"If I could choose differently I would Carol, believe me."

She left his office and began to walk back out of the building. Standing outside of the building she had no other urge than to walk over to a few of the orderlies, smoking cigarettes in one of the smoking areas. When they spotted her approaching the ones closest to her cordially extinguished their cigarettes.

"What can we do for you, Dr. Carol?"

"Give me one."

The nurses and handlers looked between themselves in surprise. One extended a pack to her. She expertly grabbed one of the long oblong white sticks and quickly placed it between her lips. She was offered a lighter obviously and she again lit the cigarette like a natural.

She handed the lighter back and began to douse her mouth in smoke, feeling a little of the pressure release.

"Didn't know you smoked Miss Carol."

"Doctor Carol. Just because I smoke with you doesn't mean I'm suddenly your friend." Becoming buddy buddy with her subordinates wasn't a goal, quite the opposite even, it was a mistake she didn't want to make. Them not taking her seriously would perhaps be the last degradation that she couldn't bear at this moment. Suddenly the cigarette seemed like a mistake.

All life is about making mistakes.

Like the smoking she had done as a teen, this was a bad habit. Letting people walk all over her. No matter if they wore doctor's coats, black manes, or curved horns. No matter where in life they trampled her to meaninglessness, some smudge at the bottom of their shoe.

She was sick of being unimportant. She couldn't lie to herself that the attention she got from Yajuu was perhaps the one thing attracting her most to the taboo of the relationship. She was no trophy to him, she was a crush, an object of admiration. She had value in Yajuu's life.

Here she was a cog.

She blew smoke into the breeze as the summer turned to Fall as more and more trees lost their color. If no one helped the two of them be happy, then she'd had to do it herself.

If Melon wants me then he's got to do it on my terms.

The Devil in black savored his whiskey, enjoying the look of the sniper rifle on his table. He was wearing face paint that disguised his black fur paired with a rather uninteresting black business suit, under which was his tactical suit. The injuries from the meeting with the eagle had thankfully worn off enough to allow him to partake in his bout of vigilantism again.

Legosi, the wolf with the empty folder, returned to work this morning claiming sudden illness caused his absence. He was intensely suspicious of the private and that was the first of the things on his docket he wanted to get to today.

He took the rifle and placed it back into its case, the examination finding it to be of no discernable faults and in working order. Once it was stowed away he finished his glass of whiskey and left one of his little nooks he had spread all over throughout Edobutsu. Offices with an extra room, unchecked maintenance areas, or a space that just no one cared for. Someone with a sense of humor might have laughed at the irony that the Devil in Black lived much like his enemy did, right under everyone's nose, hidden in plain sight. Yahya wasn't that someone.

Once he had traveled to the parking garage he swung onto a bike and peddled out into the night. He knew that Legosi didn't have a license nor did he drive a scooter, but that he rode his bike and used the EL train. Hence Yahya's disguise.

He followed the wolf and got onto the same train taking the uneventful trip to Legosi's destination. With the wolf's ailing perception of his direct surroundings, Yahya didn't need much to find out exactly where he stayed.

He knew via the file of his mate, Juno was her name if he recalled correctly, that he lived in an apartment block ten minutes walking distance away from the black market. He went through the stairwell up one of the opposing buildings that all together encircled a tiny brick-floored yard in which a few chairs, tables, and a single tree growing from a circular opening in the stone flooring, stood.

Yahya sat down behind the concrete half-wall that served as a railing to the roof. He held the binoculars up to his eyes and peered through to the other side. The window was clear, and the strong light from the inside made seeing the shapes easy and clear.

He watched them talk, eat dinner, watch a film only for them to start copulation within the first twenty minutes. Yahya averted his eyes when they started disrobing each other. His urges had withered away when Melon showed back up, proving himself an issue that couldn't be extinguished so easily. Perhaps it was the stress that took away any and all titillation, he had no clear idea. It was degrading to think about and rather disgusted him in a deeply hidden way that forced him to self-reflect whenever it occurred that he was reminded of the theme yet again.

They took half an hour before they turned off the screen and left the room, taking a shower Yahya presumed. The only people leaving the complex were the landlord closing his office for the day and a couple of other unrelated tenants.

By the time that the darkness had fully set in they returned only to retire to bed immediately.

He left via travel over the rooftops, irritated by the bust and unwilling to make this official business. He had enough of filling out reports and being the one in charge. He wanted to pull triggers himself tonight, to be useful to his own cause again.

So he patrolled, as far as his definition allowed to label this trip as such. He was wandering along the roads, telling himself he was following patterns when there was none one could properly follow.

He slipped off one building, walking along to the next. The world around him was alive and terribly irritating. Any noise, any light, any presence of anything made his head ache. He walked for nearly an hour until one of the roofs he wasn't alone. He felt the presence of another and turned quickly and steadily, revealing his military capabilities immediately. His face softened up and there was pain beneath his irises.

"Hello, Yahya." Gosha leaned against the door of the stairwell of the roof of the apartment building.

"Still being a vigilante?"

Yahya said nothing.

Gosha simply looked away, a purely neutral expression on his face.

The stalemate was excruciating, immediately the irritation flared up and Yahya felt himself boiling under his skin. He looked at a deserter.

"Still-"

"What the hell are you doing?" Gosha met his gaze and the hate was hit by an undercurrent of deep regret. Gosha had cheated him of the future he had deserved. And the sudden aggressiveness struck more than he would've liked to admit.

"Cleaning up." He dryly responded. He meant for it to be antagonizing but his end resulting words were in monotone. He didn't know he would still be so weak standing opposite of him.

"Cleaning up innocents sounds like just work to you? I used to admire you."

Another pang to his heart, he felt every word penetrate the armor he had set around himself. Every single damn thing he wanted to bury started with him.

"My citizens are unsafe in the presence of those deviants. You can't see fangs, their claws pass off as normal fingers. They are a danger to all of them." Yahya shouted back, trying to gain back some control.

Gosha's silence was a relief for just a moment until he saw his pained and regretful expression.

Yahya couldn't believe the Komodo dragon was capable of regret, as happy as he usually was.

"I can't believe I admired you." Gosha turned around and walked down the stairwell and Yahya couldn't believe that he followed to the stairs. His emotions were rampant.
"You left me. You deserter. Just left me with all the work you selfish prick." He stood at the door, leaning on it as he peered down the stairs at Gosha who stopped dead in his tracks, the scales reflecting dimly in the light.

He turned around and replied with a soft voice, barely more than a pitiful utterance in a discussion among friends.

"Wanting a family is selfish?"

Yahya looked into the eyes of his old partner, one that he once spent every hour of every day with. Someone he saw himself ruling the world with. Now he saw an old man haunted by strength go up the stairs, holding the railing for minimal support.

"Is it?" Gosha stood before him and Yahya had to pick apart the words in his brain.

"Change is worth the sacrifice." Also little more than a murmur.

"What are you changing"

"The world."

"How?" Gosha's inquiry was met with silence at first, the black horse having to fight himself to stay in composure. This was more than anger, more than regret. This was pride.

"Putting them that don't respect natural order in their place."

"Who are you to define natural order?"

"Herbivores and Carnivores don't mix."

"How come I've been your best partner?"

"No, you weren't." This time Yahya raised his voice slightly, returning to the normal high of an angry discussion.

"You betrayed me on that bridge, you threw it all away!" Yahya's outburst was met with silence. Pleasant silence while Gosha's gaze crushed him.

"You abandoned yourself." Gosha turned around and walked back down the stairs.

"Is that your last word? Is that all you have to say?" Yahya yelled down the corridor and was met with the sound of a door falling shut.

A quick and violent scream left him as he reeled from the door as if the closing door had punched him in the face. Yahya moved forward until he stood at the edge of the roof.

He silently agreed that he would never argue with somebody whose top strategy was running away. His eyes watched the world, standing so crooked and misaligned. What he did just had to be done.