"This is almost insulting. I was expecting Kazna herself not.... One of her void creatures."

The chairwoman stood next to her holodesk staring at the doorway where the silhouette stood indistinct and backlit in in near complete silence heralded by nothing but the soft hissing of the distant wind against the windows.

"If you are here to kill me, I wish you would have the courtesy to at least do it quickly. I simply do not have the patience for waiting around panicking "

Still the creature didn't move.

The Charwoman didn't move either.

They stood in a motionless tableau for some time until the creature took a halting step forward.

As it did it's form grew more distinct, and the chairwoman could see that it was partially human in shape, or at least mostly, not very told and not particularly wide. When it walked, it walked with the hesitation f someone who was either, not accustomed to walking, mildly impaired, or someone who had not used their legs in a very long time.

She could make out no physical features on the creature's face, but she could see the slow thrumming pulse of orange light inside the creature's chest. It took another step forward, and the chairwoman took another step back. Her guards should have shown up by now. She had pressed the panic button under her desk as soon as she had seen the creature in her doorway, but she supposed it made sense that they weren't coming to help.

This thing probably already dealt with them.

She did her best not to think about what that meant.

She had seen a lot of death since this all started, so she was used to shoving the pain back in her head.

Right now she had this to deal with .

The creature took another step forward.

It was so close now that the chairwoman could see tiny little dots of light swirling around inside the creature's body as if its skin was struggling to contain a tiny universe. The closer it go the more the chairwoman felt...... an overwhelming feeling of sadness and confusion radiating from the creature in a bubble. The feeling of loneliness was so overpowering that it almost knocked her off her feet, but she fought to stay upright taking another step back.

She was nearly backed up against the wall now in an almost motionless standoff with he creature until.

It lunged.

The chairwoman dodged to the side, barely dodging the swiping hands, which she somehow instinctively knew should never touch her, and then bolted for the doorway.

No one might have guessed it, but the ciswoman was fast, just as most Rundi were. IN a step for step race with ostriches over open ground a Rundi can outpace an Ostrich by at least ten miles per hour clocking in at around fifty to sixty miles per hour, and unlike the large earth bird, Rundi arms gave them the added balance that allowed them to turn on a dime.

Not only that but the chairwoman had trained for just such events. She had a planned escape rout and more, so the execution of her running turns was something to be impressed by.

Even so, the moment she slowed to look behind her, she narrowly managed to dodge the hand that was reaching out for her as the creature kept pace at her back . She tried to scream for help, but she was using all her air to keep up the back breaking pace.

She skidded around another corner, almost going parallel to the floor as she did, but righting herself at a seconds notice.

The creature wasn't so agile, skidding over the floor and plowing into the far wall before shaking itself off and racing after.

Despite falling behind, it was now gaining again.

The chairwoman tried to run faster, but even her body had limits. The creature's fingers reached out almost brushing the skin of her back as she ran.

It took another step closer, its hand coming down with a sense of horrific finality, but then, a noise, a guttural screaming cry that erupted from somewhere to her left, and the chairwoman didn't have time to turn before soemthing heavy slammed into her from the side.

She was going fast, but whatever hit her had timed it just right.

They collided like a high speed collision, and she was lifted off her feet, al the force of her momentum stopping very suddenly, while the power of the impact send her, and whatever had hit her right into the center of a nearby window.

They hit the pain of glass hard, and with a horrendous crack the glass shattered outward, and she was immediately pelted with roaring wind and sand.

There were a lot of lucky circumstances that led to them avoiding death. Firstly her room had been on the first floor, secondly the glass had shattered instead of simply bouncing them back, they had been meaning to replace those windows with bulletproof glass, but politics kept them too busy each time the idea was intended, plus assassination wasn't a think the Rundi did, so the palace wasn't designed with paranoia in mind.

Thirdly the wind was blowing hard towards the window, and as the glass shattered, a gust of wind hit them which slowed their fall remarkably.

Still she hit the ground hard and rolled over the sand into the blowing wind.

It took her a moment to realize where she was, and as soon as she did, that horrible memory of her childhood came flooding back. She was choked by sand and by darkness, but the only safe place to go back to wasn't safe anymore.

Through the whipping sand she couldn't see the creature that stalked her.

She was frozen in place by fear.

And then a hand came down on her back. She nearly screamed but something grabbed her around the neck.

Distantly she thought she heard shouted voices.

The arm tightened, hauling her to her feet.

She was so addled that for a moment she didn't recognize the creature that held her, but as their skin touched, and her skin began to itch painfully, it suddenly clicked.

She turned her head to the side as she was dragged further back into the sand.

"Adam?"

The human was barely visible to her through the whipping wind hand held up in front of his face, desperately trying to keep the whipping sand out of his eyes. Oh, she hadn't even thought of that. She knew that humans had sand storms on her planet, but it didn't occur to her to think that humans had no natural defenses against the sand, but his skin was soft, and his naturally slimy eyes and mouth would only cause sand to stick if he wasn't careful.

Even so, he was trying to drag her away from the building and into the whipping sand.

She didn't want to go, but if the human seemed to think they had a better chance outside than inside, than who was she to argue .

She took the human by the arm, despite her itching skin and the horrific rash that she would have when this was over both leaning on each other as they pushed their way into the cloud of whirling sand, midnight blue to blot out the sky above. Diffused moonlight sometimes showed through the sand, though its beams were rare and fleeting.

Hopefully, the thing wouldn't be able to follow them in this.

***

Sunny awoke alone she knew it almost immediately when she opened her eyes, delicate light sensitive organs searching over the bed for the familiar UV pattern of skin stripes visible in moonlight on her human. All she found was an empty bed and open sheets. She reached a hand out to touch the bed.

It wasn't cool, but it wasn't warm either.

He had not been gone long.

Sunny sat up and looked around the room, finding nothing and seeing no one. Adam's leg was missing as was his spear.

She contemplated just going back to bed, sure that he had simply been unable to sleep and gotten up to take a midnight walk, but something in the back of her head bothered her. Something that just didn't sit right. It took her a few sleep addled minutes to finally pick up on what her brain had known all along.

His spear was missing.

Now that wouldn't have seemed weird for a Drev, but for Adam it wasn't quite right. He wasn't a paranoid man, and he didn't hold onto his weapons in the way a Drev might have. If he took the spear with him, there was at least the possibility that he was responding to something that he considered to be some kind of threat.

But not enough of a threat for him to wake her.

So..... he woke up to a sound maybe, or even a feeling that something was slightly off. He had grabbed his spear and moved to check it out expecting nothing, but that had been a while ago. There was always the chance that he was simply trying to find a snack somewhere, or..... or something had actually gone wrong and he was being held up.

She would have liked to think the former, but the latter was certainly more plausible with Adam's track record.

With thin in mind, sunny stood from the bed and grabbed her spear, glittering with a pearly sheen in the near darkness. She held it loosely in one hand as she opened the door into the hall, looking left and right as she tried to decide which way to go.

That decision was taken from her a moment later as a loud call erupted from below.

Sunny nearly leaped out of her skin, and she could hear the voices of the other marines as they were jolted awake, confused and disoriented. If they came out to check on the noise, she wasn't sure, as she was already racing down the hall and around the corner before anyone bothered to open their doors.

She took the steps two at a time, and whirled around the corner into a dimly lit corridor.

A body was lying on the floor in the main hallway surrounded by shattered glass.

Wind blew great curtains of blue sand through the shattered window.

And standing in the middle of that was a silhouette.

From where she stood Sunny could make out no face or other identifiable features on the creature other than a soft pulsing light at the center of its chest.

Void light.

Sunny stepped slowly into the hallway, raising her spear in a diagonal across her body and lowering herself into a familiar guard stance. Even looking at this thing she knew, she knew that something was horribly wrong with it, and whatever she was going to do, she shouldn't let it touch her.

Even so, the creature made no move towards her.

It simply stood in the hallway as sand blew around it is waiting for.... Something .

Sunny inched forward, trying to get a better look at the body lying on the floor at the creature's feet. It was human, that much she could tell, and with a few more steps she was able to make out the detail.

It was the president of Mars, Tane.

For a horrible moment she thought he was dead, but on closer inspection she could see his body slowly moving up and down to the cadence of his breath. He was still alive, and at least that was something. Though, what kind of state he might be in was harder to guess at.

Sunny took another step closer, and the creature turned it's head towards her, the light pulsing brighter and faster inside it's chest.

What was this?

She could hear shouted voices up the hall not bothering to turn as a group of marines ran in to position behind her, their weapons, mostly guns, sometimes spears, drawn. Sunny was happy enough to let the men with the guns take over on this one as she had no desire to get close to that thing.

It was hard to tell who fired the first shot, but as soon as gunfire erupted, the creature was gone.

With a sudden flash of light, and a warping of the air that sort of looked like a glitch, the creature was gone.

For a moment no one knew what to do, until Sunny ran forward to check on Tane.

When she rolled him over she hissed in surprise noting the pulsing orange veins running down the side of his face.

Void sickness, and advanced, which was impossible for what she knew about its incubation period. Somehow, she was sure that the thing had given it to him, though if worse had happened she couldn't tell. Wind and sand whipped at her face, and she raised a hand to block it. Adam was around here somewhere, probably outside in the sand if she were to guess. Hopefully he was safe now, and the creature wasn't in pursuit.

***

Lord Celex lifted his head from where he rested on the dark marbled floor. A light crackling of dark orange light broke through his thoughts. Somewhere a portal opened and Kazna stepped through, escorting her new pet with a gentle hand. It made the emperor sick to his stomach as he watched the gentle almost motherly way in which the void general coaxed the creature into the room. Lord Celex didn't know much about Kazna, but he knew enough of Sunny's past to know that she didn't have a motherly bone in her body, and that was saying something coming from him.

His mother had eaten all of his siblings.

"You did your best." Kazna crooned, "They are devious, and difficult, but you will have your chance again."

The creature wobbled back and forth in dejection.

"rest, and regain your strength. Take power from the dark." She said stepping back into the portal and allowing it to close.

Lord Celex was left in this dark expanse with the creature, who emitted a feint pulse of void light, tiny dots of light like stars swirling under its skin.

He waited until he was sure Kazna was no longer listening, and then rose to his knees pulling against the chain which held him.

"Kelly." He whispered.

The creature didn't look at him.

"Admiral Tala Kelly!" He tried again

Still no response.

"President Kelly!" His voice was more forceful now, sure that they were alone. To his surprise, the creature shifted slightly, turning its head to look at him. HE could see the familiar shape in the outline, just her outline warped, and forced into this horrific state. It wasn't natural and it wasn't right. Kazna had made a mistake when she first brought him into her little patch of void. She had engaged him from the beginning trying to convince him and cajole him, but his will was too strong. With Kelly she had tried a different tactic, isolating her in a human's worst nightmare.

Nothingness.

Convincing her that she didn't exist, simply a consciousness floating in infinite black for eternity.

And it had worked.

It had broken Kellly's mind despite how strong the emperor knew she was. She had lost all sense of identity, almost all her memory in that void.

The emperor growled low in his throat.

Well, this was going to be Kazna's last mistake.

Allowing him access to Kelly.

If she didn't remember, he was just going to have to remind her.