Author's Note: Hello Lads and Ladies

We are going to follow the routine of a renewed schedule update with the new story finally released, the third and final one. (However, there will probably be a season 4-ish Slice of Life compendium of both stories they have as adults and of their children.)

I am currently in a work re-entering initiative for troubled youths and what-not. That's of course gonna shake up my schedule as well as the fact that we have blazing heat here that is making clear thinking damn near impossible. That is the most reason why this chapter took so damn long. As well as the fact that I needed to recuperate after the season 2 Finale. I needed some order in my head.

So writing is gonna be a bit more sporadic, like said my thinking capability is not the best in blazing heat so I will take more time in these summer months, at the same time even without heat I have some other responsibilities that will take first priority.

It's gonna be a little shakey from here on out but it's gonna be alright. When chapters come I will make sure they are in the best condition they can be, just like how I rewrote the last segment of this chapter quite a bit from the honestly abysmal first try.

Yahya is an interesting character to me, mostly just by the fact that I'm going to have a character that I will model after dictators just because I was so damn pissed off at how he never once received punishment for his asshole behavior and race supremacist ways. Quite a few things to really dig into with the Devil in Black.

I hope you all have a wonderful time with this chapter here, I know that I sure did. Best wishes to all of you and best of hopes that this series delivers the last story beats that I need to conclude. Enjoy reading, best wishes!

Edited by: SuperAverageFoxyboy, The Dude who likes Tanks

-Portal

There was a thing to life moving faster than one could perceive. The darkness that was expected to loom over life after Riz passed was as minimal as it ever could be. Surely enough in the blink of an eye, Legosi himself graduated from the Cherryton Academy with high honors for acts of courage and dedication to building social structures for all species.

Legosi had done his best in organizing fun events inclusive of all animals present in the last one and a half years he spent at Cherryton with his newly gained privileges of being a Beastar. And when he graduated it was no surprise that Jack followed his journey to University after he too reached graduation with the highest academic honors. And so life moved on in its time frame and so followed Legosi in the usual steps as he searched for an apartment in the city.

Most encounters with the public were met with warm smiles and even a couple of animals thanking him in person for what he had done to help save the city from such a terrible monster. Being a public hero had its perks Legosi found even if he didn't really care about his status.

Most any place he looked at wanted to eagerly accept him, some of the landlords even promising to lower prices when Legosi showed any sign of disinterest. It was funny at first how little Legosi enjoyed all the living spaces he checked out. All the clean and spacious, multiple bedrooms and other extras that surely would make any university student envious of his options. Yet Legosi didn't care for any of them.

He never had much more than what others had and he wasn't one to brandish wealth in cases where he could. Perhaps it was him growing up in a small apartment that Gosha had by merit of being friends with the landlord, or maybe the fact that he was used to living in his dorm with his friends.

He didn't want anything that would separate him from others, and neither did he want anything that showed him that the world viewed him as something special. For a while, he felt cursed on his way through every apartment block in his price range and even a few ways above his means of paying only given by means of the Beastar title, yet no single place showed any kind of appeal to him.

No ivory towers or pristine already furnished apartments appealed to him. But as per everyone that he talked to about it said A Beastar should live better than the average animal, come on Legosi, you earned some luxury.

Until one night, Legosi finally understood again that he would have to do what he was really good at. Disregarding the rules that society beset on him and taking reign in his life as no other could.

And that was when he found the place he would call home for the next few years of University attendance. A gray apartment block ten minutes away from his grandfather's house, and just five minutes away from the train station. A single room with a kitchenette and communal bathrooms one for each floor.

Legosi, later on, realized that most likely he went with the hidden condo in the backstreets of the district where he spent his childhood because it reminded him a lot of the gardening shack on Cherryton's roof. That storage shack that had become his makeshift home at a time when he wanted nothing more than to feel Juno by his side.

A week or two later, he started to work as a part-time janitor for a small ramen house right in front of the EL-Train station. He covered afternoon shifts and listened to music while cleaning floors, scrubbing windows, or doing the dishes. He was cherished there. No place seemed better to customers than knowing that the city's most popular Beastar worked for it.

Legosi heard in the aftermath of the ceremony that many local papers had written articles about the expanded carnivore night Legosi had mostly organized himself. In the eyes of parents and students alike, the wolf had become the shining leader of the group that had ended Riz's reign of terror over the Cherryton academy and surrounding districts.

And as classes started so did the time began to fly. Old faces came to university just as new faces did. And after just a year Legosi attended the graduation ceremony of Juno's year.

And soon Juno and Legosi happily lived together in a one-room apartment fully financed by Legosi's job, Juno's parents, and Gosha's generous offer to pay the other half.

They watched movies together on a small rented TV from the bottom office of the building, cooked meals in their small kitchen which they ate on their ground-level bed, and danced together until well past midnight.

They lived the idyllic young couple's life of not being bound to any responsibility other than their studies. And while living their hobbies during the day, they had eyes for no one but each other at night.

Life was good and it felt like it could never end...

Legosi pushed the broom off the sidewalk, pushing dust and leaves over the stone path in between the tables in front of the store. Music played directly into his ears from his earbuds, different tracks shuffling through the mix.

The shop was sitting in the shade of the large EL-Train Track. It was a quaint little place that mirrored in many ways the feel of home. Both the very obviously self-made decor which had been made with attention to detail and very careful hands and the food prepared with a lot of care and flavor gave off the feeling of sitting at home in the coziest corner.

"Hey boy, you don't need to keep cleaning under every table, your shift is almost over." The Albatross stood in the doorway, his apron surprisingly clean for having a full day of work behind him.

"No problem, Mr. Benjiro" Legosi answered, doing just the last sweeping motions of combining the dirt into one pile and then expertly swooping the pile onto a dustpan. When he looked up he caught the sight of three she-wolves standing by the end of the stairs. They stared at him, giggling among themselves.

He raised his hand and waved, the three she-wolves giddily repeating the gesture, in the excitement being unsure of what to do. Legosi smiled a bit and then turned around, oblivious to the reason why they watched from afar.

After he emptied the dustpan over the trashcan he walked behind the corner into the back of the building, past the kitchen into the small office. Besides the desk, computer and a single filing cabinet the small office also housed cleaning equipment and three lockers. Currently only one was in use by Legosi, the old albatross couple owning the shop still currently looking for a cook besides Mr. Benjiro himself.

He placed the broom and dustpan in the corner and slipped out of his blue long-sleeved shirt, the only part of his uniform. After he had placed it back in the locker he took out his normal shirt and collected his things.

Fully dressed in his normal attire he left the office to see Misses Kokoro finishing a package by the worktop by the open doorway to the dining room. She looked at Legosi with motherly warmth.

"Here you go dear, some dumplings for you and Juno for dinner." She held out the package to him which he eagerly accepted. A big perk of working at this little Ramen shop was that Misses Kokoro and Mister Benjiro often shared their own meals with Legosi to bring home.

"Thank you, Misses Kokoro" Legosi thanked the albatross lady, gray feathers tucked in between many of the still white ones. He left the restaurant to see the familiar sight this time of the day.

Juno stood by the end on the other side of the many chairs and tables positioned in front of the little shop. Her fur softly moved by a slight breeze of wind, her hand on her hip awaiting Legosi. She wore form-fitting jeans and a red shirt, sunglasses on her forehead.

"Hello, my prince." Juno greeted Legosi who held up the package of dumplings.

"I got us dinner." The wolf reported back, his mate only laughing.

"Your favorite like always... How was your shift?"

"Alright like always... Those girls are here again." Legosi looked at the she-wolves at the bottom of the stairs to the EL-Train. The group still dreamily looked at him while shooting dirty glances at Juno that Legosi could not properly interpret.

"You still don't get why they are here?" Juno asked. Legosi only shook his head as they started walking.

"I mean I am a Beastar, but there isn't really much else of what I am." Juno laughed at her oblivious boyfriend, the group of girls at the stairs hushing away as they noticed that they were approaching.

"What's so funny about that?" Legosi's confusion was as real as the ground under their feet, and Juno continued to laugh as they both started to climb the stairs. She calmed down to a snicker after a couple of steps.

"You know... hero of the city, beloved by the public and cherished by friends alike. But Legosi still stays Legosi when he doesn't understand the simple concept of others having a crush on him..." Juno finished talking and Legosi stopped in his tracks, Juno doing the same a few steps later after she noticed Legosi wasn't by his side anymore.

She looked down the stairs and saw the wolf look after the girls who hid very badly behind the next turn of a building, the tips of their tails still wagging out from behind the wall.

And before she could even ask what he was doing, he had already moved up to her and delicately grabbed her face, his lips touching hers. A sweet symphony of hormones raced through her head as she felt herself being dipped down, the wolf just continuing to kiss her in a sudden and sweet display of love.

After a little eternity, she felt herself being risen to a straight posture again, as she looked into his eyes whilst seeing nothing else. She noticed most clearly his tail slowly and rhythmically wagging behind him. The all too familiar love wag that her own tail was doing right now.

"Let's go home now..." Legosi said with that lovey-dovey sweet affliction in his voice. And struck by the sudden expression of love Juno dumbly followed the wolf, both holding hands tightly.

They arrived home about fifteen minutes later.

"What was that at the train station..." It might have been a question yet her voice became quiet and her tone became once again this love drunken whisper.

"What? Is a man not allowed to kiss his girlfriend anymore?" Legosi commented while placing his shirt in the dirty laundry basket. Juno found the comment to be on theme with his oblivious nature.

"Not that I didn't enjoy it, I just wanted to know where that came from."

Legosi came closer to Juno. Sitting down on their bed, looking directly into her eyes.

"I don't want to give anyone false hopes if my eyes only belong to you..." Juno observed Legosi saying the word in a husky voice, slowly leaning towards her. Soon they were in each other's arms with their muzzles just half an inch apart from each other.

"I never thought about it like that." Juno breathed, laughing in her completely absent state, her eyes fixating on him while completely forgetting the rest of the conversation. Legosi chuckled and Juno thought she would lose her mind if he didn't just kiss her right now.

he let out another breathless laughter and no word needed to be said as their lips met and they sunk into the mattress clinging to each other like links in a chain.

This had become somewhat of a weekly norm, and both of them loved every second of it.

Barkley sat still in the car of the train wearing a black business suit looking like an employee on their way to a board room meeting. Dark thoughts and ill intent went through his mind as he waited for the train to reach his station. His mind residing on the letter in his pocket.

His family had drastically changed since Michael got attacked by his childhood friend Trimagasi, the same goat he had attacked in meat drunken absent-mindedness.

His father had returned home, furious about the whole ordeal, screaming into phones and writing enraged letters and emails. Even at home, the adult saint bernard seemed infinitely far away, locking himself in his office for most hours of the day, only coming forth to eat a meal and then locking himself in his office for the rest of the night until when everyone was asleep he showered and slipped into bed next to his wife.

Barkley himself had stopped trying to get his father out of the house into some daily activities, slowly becoming frustrated with the whole situation. But the boiling point was reached when his father was recovering from a stress migraine in the bedroom while Barkley had to frantically call Frank to pick up his mother who was going into labor.

Sally was born between her oldest and youngest brother, but neither Michael nor Father showed up. Michael couldn't even show up if he wanted to, sitting in therapy, but that incident stoked a fire in his heart.

After that, his father of whom he once looked so much up to turned into another work-obsessed old-timer. He turned away from any chance to talk to his father up to the point where he was so sick of the old man locking himself into his room that he violently knocked on his door.

The following screaming match between the two was heard through the entire apartment complex. Father versus son, like it, always was.

After that Barkley stopped showing compassion in his family home, locking himself in his room most of the time, almost identical to his father. The only person that Barkley showed no qualms with was just little Sally, his completely innocent little sister.

He argued with his mother about trying to make this apartment a family again, pulling Father out of the office. But like the submissive and subservient housewife that she had become, she said it would only call upon more fights.

He knew that his brothers wouldn't be able to help so in the face of the circumstance he realized that he was entirely powerless.

He spent his days concentrating on his studies, locking himself in his room, not caring for the people outside of his door coming to knock. Until the mail brought a very specific letter addressed to him.

The letter was from the city municipal building, the giant skyscraper overlooking most of the city center. It was an informal letter letting him know that he had been chosen for a government scholarship that would more than pay for an apartment away from home.

The train came to a stop. Barkley without any emotion rose from his scene and wandered to the door in a walk that was neither firm nor laid back, neither concentrated nor dreaming. And for most of the way he was stuck in that place, the entirely incomprehensible liminal space between lucidity and a waking dream.

He was nowhere in the truest sense of the word, his mind not being able to identify his path while still walking it based on seemingly muscle memory. When the emotions came there was no end to them. He couldn't control himself when it came to his emotions. His self-autonomy was a tiny speck of dust fighting the suction power of a vacuum cleaner.

And still, he put one foot before the other, reaching the glass giant in the center of the city.

"Oh, you're an applicant for Project Cerberus? The Sublime Beastar will arrive here shortly, please follow me." Barkley wordlessly followed the sheep working behind the desk walking towards the elevators.

As Barkley entered the elevator car the sheep pressed a few buttons on the keypad and then left the car again.

"The Sublime Beastar asks you to make yourself comfortable in his apartment." The sheep said in a friendly tone, letting the doors close.

The ride up to his office was surprisingly short, for the height they traveled the acceleration of the elevator car was high.

He hardly had the time to let his bad thoughts start up again as the door was opening. What he saw first was a lobby-esque room right outside the elevator car. The material was smooth black stone except for the handles of the double door to the Beastar's office which were shining in a golden color. Beside the door frame stood erected, one on each side, statues of Herbivores spirits meant to wane off bad energies. Barkley never thought the Beastar to be superstitious but at the same time was not really surprised either.

Barkley walked through the double doors to see the large room in equally black stone, every pillar and wall decoration having a golden sheen. It reminded Barkley of Egyptian gods to look at the specific decal of the Beastars office, the whole place seeming like a tomb or a temple... something akin to a resting place. Whoever went here was about to meet something that preceded mortal understanding.

To his left stood the Beastar's desk pointed towards the inside of the room. Behind it were the large glass windows overlooking the city. Barkley understood that whoever worked here must feel powerful, the entire city below their watchful gaze. Documents were in neat folders and a few filing cabinets, equally black as the rest of the room, stood in the corner to ensure order. And even though the desk was as good as empty of personal items, it screamed of character, or more so the lack thereof. It seemed that the absence of where personality should be had now itself gained a personality.

Barkley got a shiver down his spine, feeling uneasy and doubting his decision to meet the Sublime Beastar after all.

To his right were couches arranged in the way a Waiting room would be set up. In the most bizarre turn of events, the nice couches opposite the Beastar's desk seemed to be more lifeless and inanimate than the empty and barren desk Barkley had just looked at. Whoever had decorated this place had a spirit that was hard to comprehend, well hidden behind walls.

And even as he looked upon the black stone walls and saw the paintings hanging there, he found the abstract pieces of black dots and stripes to be just as emotionless as the rest of the place. Barkley against what he knew of the Sublime Beastar found that he didn't want to meet him at all now, feeling a frigid cold spread below his suit.

Yet still, Barkley looked on, seeing the most colorful thing in this black tomb of an office. Neatly lining the rest of the wall and the windows, surrounding a dining table in the same drab black and gold color combo, was a continuous row of greenery. Plants blooming and some he even recognized. Common garlic, spring onions, carrots, and other spices and herbs sprouting about.

It was perplexing and both note that the most cared for objects in the Sublime Beastar's office were vegetables. Barkley wandered past them to view it all until he saw a dry white peaking past the brown of the dirt. Barkley peeked closer between the dirt and roots of the vegetation, but he couldn't make out exactly what it was. He was too scared of angering the garden's caretaker by accidentally pulling out a plant while inspecting a weird object in his garden.

Barkley walked back to the inanimate couches and sat down. It was comfortable enough for a lifeless object. His mind wandered as he felt that he was in a place alien to him.

This office didn't feel right. It felt like a dark version of what an animal in power's office should be. A clean and refined one, but nonetheless dark. He felt this bad feeling in the pit of his stomach, but at the same time, he didn't want to leave. His fear of making someone in authority mad trumped his fear of the situation.

As he stewed in his thought, he heard the elevator car outside of the room open, feeling a cold chill running down his spine as footsteps walked to the door. He straightened himself, sitting in a well-behaved and well-kept manner, trying his best to not seem nervous, which he failed at.

The door opened, and the Sublime Beastar entered his office.

Barkley sat quietly on the couch, terrified of how the Beastar would be. However, he did not expect the Beastar's first actions to be in complete ignorance of himself being in the room. He silently observed him take off his jacket and place it on the clothing rack, now in just a dress white dress shirt and his black suit pants. He pushed his sleeves back to reveal the bulging muscles of just his forearm, the horse having a broad-shouldered and muscular build. His hand ran through his mane, the stringy hair only halfway reacting to his fingers' attempt of putting in some order.

Afterward, he walked past the couches, past the greenery row towards the dining table as a door on the right wall opened. A well-dressed deer came out from the door, his black suit managing to rival even the clothing quality of the Beastar's coat.

They silently communicated via a single look between them, the well-dressed stranger holding a tray that had a few small pill bottles and a large glass of water on them. He placed it on the table, giving a silent nod to the Beastar and then moving back halfway towards the door before turning to Barkley, speaking over the plant rows.

"Any wishes of Beverage, sir?" Barkley nearly sputtered out of his skin in surprise.

"Ehm... water or tea is fine." The mysterious stranger bowed and left the room, Barkley now going back to observing the horse. Yahya, whose fur was as equally as black as the rest of the office, downed the pills with a glass of water. Once he lowered the glass back onto the tray he took a deep breath of fresh air pushing it out his nose.

He turned around, walking away from the table to the row of greenery. He bowed down and delicately grabbed one of the parts of his produce, specifically a small pepper, and ate it in one bite. His expression turned to a short-lived satisfaction, and Barkley was beginning to ask himself if Yahya was even aware that an applicant to the program was present in his office. Yet his nervosity kept him from speaking to the sublime Beastar.

Yahya moved past the greenery row to his desk, his walk having turned from a concentrated strut to a much more relaxed movement that still embodied the elegance and strength that an animal of such standing should have.

He sat down at his desk and grabbed through folders, the two now sitting opposite each other. And again, Barkley asked himself if Yahya even knew that he was present, the Beastar now conducting what looked to be office work while not acknowledging the young man in his office.

Then he looked up directly into Barkley's eyes, and the saint Bernard realized that being ignored would have been better. Yahya's eyes were cold and refused entry into its inner workings. Yet it wasn't the insane and malicious way of refusing another to see into the depths of their depravity through their eyes. It was a cold, calculating, and ever so slightly anger brushing up beneath. Barkley was the first to look away in discomfort.

His emotional state was undecipherable.

Yahya looked down at the document again and grabbed a cigarette from his pocket, lighting it with a smooth silver lighter, letting the small metal tool glide back into the pocket from where it had come from.

For the next few indescribably painfully uncomfortable minutes there was nothing in the room except the terrible smell of cigarette smoke and the silence of him studying the documents. Barkley felt every thought in his mind to scream at him to run for the door, but the order and disciple he was taught to have refused him the luxury of leaving.

Suddenly Yahya left the paper by the left side of the desk and leaned back in his chair. He grabbed a small black remote from one of the desk compartments and pressed the button, rubbing his eyes with his long sleek fingers.

The smart-dressed Deer appeared carrying a tray containing both the tea and a glass of brown liquid of obviously alcoholic nature. He whispered into the butler's ear, who answered in a small cordial nod and then leaned back into his chair, now with the glass in his hand, balancing the cigarette between his index and middle finger.

The silence continued for what felt like small eternities as the voices begging for escape sounded out louder, yet the discipline and the well-mannered dog that he was remained seated like he had been trained to do.

Yahya stood up, snuffing out the cigarette in a tray placed in another compartment of the desk, outside of Barkley's view. The dog remained perfectly still in ordinary panic as the sublime Beastar picked up Barkley's tea and wandered over to the couches, handing him the tea.

"Thank you," came barely a whisper. Barkley cursed himself stupid when Yahya sat down on the couch beside him. It needed every bit of energy he had to fight away the urge to run away in fear, and now it was even less possible, the much stronger horse blocking the way.

Barkley observed Yahya staying in complete silence with a new type of horror he couldn't define. His hands were still, his exterior a quiet and representable image, yet his thoughts screamed at him to run away. Whatever instincts he harbored were going insane in his skull, even if there was no threat to his life he could detect at this minute.

"Dogs were bred for war." Yahya's suave dark and yet smooth voice broke the horrible tension building behind Barkley's eyes and showered him in relief before he could even logically think about what he had just said. It took him embarrassingly long to catch himself again.

"Excuse me?" Barkley said, slightly confused

"You're forefathers many, many decades ago, too long back to count, were chosen to breed in order to make the species of dog that you are today. You were in every sense made for war, more so than any other carnivore." His voice remained in this cold and cool explanation of basic canine history that it entirely caught him off guard.

"What are you-" Barkley said before the black horse cut him off.

"I want you to be a soldier. To do what your species was made for." His eye contact was captivating and terrifying at the same time. And at the very moment that the remaining tension in the room, which had been revitalized by Yahya's terrible questions, Barkley felt a random and miraculous moment of courage.

"What on earth are you doing here, sir? You let me wait, even while you're in the room, and then you treat me like a mindless idiot that follows big words? If all you wanted to do was belittle someone beneath you then I really have better things to do." Barkley stood up in defiance, readying himself to leave the room, although he knew crystal clear that without expressed permission he would just stay here at this spot until he died of old age.

"You're free to go if you feel offended by my words, but I need to test if you are, in fact, viable for my offer," Yahya answered in stride, and Barkley felt like he could walk forward through the door and leave these crossroads behind, just pretending the whole thing didn't happen, but then he chose not to. The Beastar was not playing fairly, using the dog's curiosity against him. And so, even in the face of being tricked, he caved in, sinking back into the couch.

"What do you need a 'soldier' for? You're better off grabbing someone from the self-defense force than me." In an unwanted and unneeded surprise, Yahya laughed loudly at Barkley trying to mock him and his use of words. It felt like a laugh you gave another to congratulate them for trying.

"I need you for a special project. Something that would allow you to do some good for the city. Be a hero to those who need one." Barkley found that he didn't like the superficial press conference talk Yahya was using, but to his dismay, his courage had been short-lived.

"I see you aren't yet convinced," Yahya commented, Barkley's body language and features remaining completely frozen and still.

"Then let me convince you."

After about half an hour of talking and explaining and mostly disregarding the trashy prewritten lines of the script in his pocket, the dog was convinced, even if by coaxing him out of his shell with the promise of room and board with enlistment in the project. You got to sell the normal necessity like a premium feature to the fool living in blissful ignorance

He said his parting words and informed the newest private under his command that a letter would arrive over the week, explaining the terms and service and naming a starting date for his enlistment. He remained stoically watching the glass wall staring down on the savage cesspit beneath his feat as the enlistee left the room behind him.

Yahya heard the door behind him close, and after a short while, the elevator door opened and closed again. Rage boiled through his face as soon as the sound caught his ears.

"TOSHIRO" With the rage-filled shout the well-dressed dear wordlessly entered the room and walked to Yahya's side, observing his master hold the script clenched in his fist.

"I want you to fire whoever wrote this damned script. I want one thing to not worry about with all the work I have to do, and the first script to come from the writers is so horrendous I had to improvise." Yahya leaned closer to Toshiro after his outburst.

"Tell all of them that if I play my hand too early, that if any of them get any ideas about what I'm doing then the city's integrity will crumble to dust right under our feet."

"Yes sir, Sublime Beastar." Toshiro grabbed the letter and left the room. Yahya walked to his garden instead, eating a carrot and enjoying its rich and meaty flavor as he wandered back to the window.

He saw the city in its wakening hours and thought to himself that it needed cleansing. Cleansing from all the filth that had built up after all the years of letting the heretics muddle the population, blurring the lines between holy herbivore and the workman Carnivore. They had spit upon all that was holy to him and all that mattered. They had defiled and wronged the holy rules, and so the heretic temple to savagery needed first to crumble to give place to a new kingdom.

Yahya smiled as he looked in every sense of the term down on every life in the city. On these savage ruins, he would build his sanctum of purity.