No one came for us. The two outsides lying in the grass among the ruins of destroyed tent. For hours we laid that way, waiting for something that never came and enjoying the presence of another person who understand that feeling. The feeling of being unwanted by the world enveloped us in a silent solidarty and once more I wondered if it was the only reason we got along so well. We barely knew each other, yet I had never felt so understand by another. The scientists, my caretakers...Ruth, they as humans never understood what it was like to be me, different yet the same. So while it was praised and cultivated, the Other-ness inside of me, it wasn't  the same. We were all aware of what I was and how that made me different, and looking back at it I suspect many had envy and fear for me over it. However, it wasn't until I was rejected by humans so bluntly and horribly that I understand the true meaning of being different in this world. I still had hope, that the humans would accept me. They had to after all, they...they needed me. Still that sting and those words would remain with me forever and one of the few people who understood that now was my...friend.

"We are friends right?" I whispered, rolling my neck to look at him.

He hadn't turned back since I asked about his wings. Hunched over against the harshness of the world and his own thoughts, it was apparent he had not enjoyed the silence as much as I had.

Tension loosened, him taking a deep cleansing breath to answer. "Yes Alice."

Grass rained down on us, I had begun ripping it from the ground and throwing it into the air.

"What are you doing?"

"Celebrating, it's confetti." I answered. He sat up to look down at me, an eyebrow once again quirked up at the inquiring angle. Laughing, I reached up and pushed it back down.

"I've never had a friend before. It seemed something worth celebrating."

He snorted through his nose, the air tickling my hand before he swatted it away only to swiping it up into his own. He struggled a moment then managed to pull me and him to our feet.

"Let's go find something to eat."

"But the lieutenant said he wouldn't feed us." My steps hopping and skipping in stuttering rhythm as it worked to sync with his. "Well without a lot of work that is."

"Then we go work."

"I don't want to." A look at him showed that wasn't an option. "Fine, in that case we should join the military as they seem to get the best treatment around here."

"We are not joining the military Alice."

A deep voice resonated from seemingly nowhere. "What are you two doing here?"

I jumped, jerking my head about for the source. My nose should have caught someone coming up on us. It took a bit, but I was finally able to find the source and was surprised to see the lieutenant lurking in the shadows of a building. That's creepy.

A slight twitch threatened to pull Pitri's smile into a frown. "We are looking for some food or a way to work for the food. We didn't come all this way to starve."

"Or to sleep outside on the ground." I muttered.

A slow deliberate turn was made by the general, emphasizing his words. "What happened to your tent?"

I flushed, sweat creeping at my brow. "Well you see..." Rocking back and forth on my heels, I was at a loss under his intensity. I couldn't get in trouble. "Um...Pitri."

"It broke."

"Oh really?" He circled us, feet making nary a sound. If I didn't know better, I'd say he was the one with Others' blood in him. "In that case we best get you to work right away, you're going to need to work off that tent before you can get any food after all."

A couple minutes later we were shuffled into an extremely hot underground room that immediately drenched me in my own sweat. Lucky for me, the pheromones of the Others gave it a flowery smell...I could not say the same for the two gentlemen with me making my nose scrunch in distaste. It only got worse as we traveled deeper into the ground.

Metal screeched on metal, grating my ears. I hissed, covering my ears.

"Better get used to it." The lieutenant brushed off, stopping to open a large imposing door. It was at least 8 feet tall and a foot thick.

Crossing the threshold, Pitri spun around. "What is this place?"

"What it is doesn't matter, what happens here is what is important."

A more modest door was squeaked open to reveal a googled head. The girl wearing them had deep brown hair with honey colored streaks that stuck in every direction. Her pale and freckled face was covered in a slashing layer of ash and grim. A slight mechanical whirl could be heard as the lens of the googles whizzed in and out adjusting to the light.

"Hey Cani, what's up?"

A slight blush dotted the lieutenant's neck, making me curious to who this girl was. He cleared his throat, his Adam's apple bobbing.

"Malia, these two are your new workers. They will do whatever you need. They owe us for a tent."

Malia nodded along. She flitted back inside the door, leaving the crack open. Pitri and I exchanged a glance silently arguing with our eyes. The lieutenant tapped his foot, impatient to be rid of us, especially since Malia had retreated. A sharp whistle like calling a dog emitted from behind the door. I'm not a dog. Taking a deep breath, I slide between the door and frame just barely grazing it and careful to not open it any further on purpose. Pitri just rolled his eyes and opened it like a normal person only to freeze the door hanging open. He stumbled and forward when it was slammed shut from the other side, no doubt the lieutenant.

The room really was freeze worthy though. I spun around and tilted over, trying to take in every angle of this human scientific wonder. I was a thing of science, yet it never really held my attention. However, this...it was not like anything I had ever learned about and was far more fascinating. I really couldn't believe it. No wonder the fort had managed to stay safe.

Teetering about, Malia shifted things about to clean up the chaos of the...lab. Maybe that wasn't the right word though the closer I looked. The room was a cavern, large and expansive. Around the edges, people used pick-axes to ping away at something similar to rock. The center was a large forge where they were welding the stuff mined. However, the true wonder was the lab near the entry way. A labyrinth of beakers and test tubes, littered make shift counters. All different colors, many bubbling and spewing gases into the air. They were weaponizing many different aspects of whatever it was.

I sniffed, trying to figure out what it was about this place making it so special. Pitri drifted to a counter, crouching to look into one of the beakers and shouted jumping back. I walked over, standing over him with a frown. He was shaking, upset. I peered over into the glass to find an eye floating in a solution. It twisted and turned, dancing in the liquid.

"Don't worry, it's not human. It's...um..." Malia grabbed a label, notebook flipping through for the answer. "Ah, here we are beaker 11 has a goblin's eye in it."

"Why?" Pitri stuttered.

"To see what happens of course. The Other's anatomy is so different from our own and even among themselves, it takes a lot of experimenting to discover what will hurt each one."

I tapped the glass, making the eyeball jiggle and bounce off one of the walls.

"Hey! Don't do that." Malia snatched it up, cradling it gently. "You could ruin the integrity of the results."

"What is that stuff?" I asked, ignoring her babying of an eyeball too disgusted.

"You don't need to know that." She retorted, setting the beaker down with a light touch. "What you need to know is how to get your hands dirty."

Pitri's eyes roamed the area, questioning. "Lot of secrets here, isn't there?"

"Secrets are necessary for the good of the people." Malia gestured and two pick-axes were brought over and forced into our hands. "The important truths though are known, we protect our own and if you want to remain under that protection of that, you get to work."

My arms repeatedly swung and vibrated against the strange substance. It was so boring and slow. While Pitri had quickly developed a labored breathing, my own remained constant and even. Too bad I couldn't use my enhanced strength and speed to make fast work of all this, instead I focused on the rhythm to drown out thoughts so I couldn't even think enough to be bored. Still, one eye remained on Pitri and his contracting lungs begging for more oxygen. His Other-half was probably the only thing keeping him standing, the human body needed food. I tensed, if I just went faster I could earn all the food we needed. But all the humans eyes made me fearful, what if I should what I could do and they hated me for it?

A thump sounded. Someone had collapsed, probably from heat and exhaustion. I stopped, pick buried deep in the rock...waiting. None of the other workers halted their work, if anything they picked it up. Pitri paused beside me, reaching out a hand to lean on the wall.

"Isn't anyone going to help them?" He gasped the words out in lurching phrases.

Tingling fingers fell limp from the handle, I moved to go to the person when a surge shifted around me. A group of people all dressed in white uniforms and surgical masks pushed forward. They picked up the person, rather roughly, and strode out. I followed their steps, my eyes wide to take it all in. Another group in white was coming in from a side entrance, they were leading by the shoulders a regular dressed young man. The white merged together and then broke just abruptly when the two groups crossed paths, one taking someone away to God's knows where and the other condemning a new person to take over their fate. The young man had tear stains on his face and bruises visible as they crept out from under his clothes.

The group waited, pointing at the pick axe dropped just moments before. The dejected man lifted it and began working, his rhythm soon matching everyone else. Satisfied, the group left nodding in respect to Malia, but then gone like it had never happened. I turned, daggering my eyes at Malia. She met them, strong and confident in their way of life.

And they call me the monster.