Beyond Stratosphere - Wolves Howl Twice

December 2067. After the Underworld Auction, Ghost has fallen into a coma. Nadia Nagase, the first Angel, watches over while pondering about the events that struck Stratosphere like a lightning. The howl of a distant wolf is waiting for both of them. A howl that will make the situation at Stratosphere even more complex.

The soft humming of the compressor, of a plethora of medical machines, blinking in and out of existence. A rhythm, steady, the beating of a heart. Pumping. Seventy-eight. Seventy-nine. Seventy-eight again. Regular, somehow. A monitor switched on, on a small table. Other parameters, values that made sense only for someone who analyzed them as a job. Colorful labels flashing around the indicators, helping the uninitiated understand whether or not the numbers were fine at a glance. Green everywhere. A pinch of yellow at random times, only to go back to green. No red. No emergency. All stable. Yet, the woman lying on the bed wasn’t aware of it. She couldn’t see the green. She couldn’t read her heartbeat. She couldn’t hear the humming. She breathed, though. Regularly. Slowly. An autonomous process, something that not even her condition could quell. A sigh. But not from her – from another figure, sitting close to the bed. A figure that sighed very seldom, as empathy was a relatively little known business to her. She kept her arms crossed, leaning on the back of a wooden chair, her eyes fighting against Morpheus, against the tiredness that assaulted her body. However, she didn’t complain. Father Onyango taught her that. A promise is a promise. Your word is your currency. You don’t go back on an oath. You see everything through. That’s why she was lurking there, in that medical division room, watching over that figure wrapped by a white blanket, with IV drops and an oxygen mask. Numbers went up and down, green and yellow. Never red. That was good. It meant her body was doing well. Her mind thought…

Nadia closed her eyes, the rest of her body immobile. Ghost without Lemur. That felt like an impossibility, something unfathomable. The Third and Fourth Angel were one as two, an anomaly of the reality matrix, according to Mr. Greschnik. Two individuals that occupied the same quantum state, two young women which shared every sensation, two sisters who lived in complete synchronicity.

Lived.

Nadia’s mind lingered on that word for a while longer.

Lived.

Past tense.

Yes, that was the past. Appropriately enough. Because, of course, the present was different.

Only one of them was left.

Seventy-eight. Seventy-nine. Seventy-seven.

Nadia gazed at the girl lying down on that bed, at her slick, black hair, at her pale skin. She was alive, of course, but why wasn’t she waking up? One week had passed since she fell into a coma. One week. Yet, everything was fine with her. The doctors said she was healthy. Her muscles, her organs, her brain… everything was in order.

But Ghost was still unconscious.

Another sigh. Nadia knew very little about medicine, only what Father Onyango explained to her. Cats die when they are kicked. People die when they are sliced. When they are shot. When they are stabbed. When they are strangled. Decapitated. Asphyxiated. Starved. Mauled. Eaten. She knew that. But a coma? That was a concept she couldn’t grasp. It wasn’t death. It wasn’t life. So, what was it? That was a question that crossed her mind, even if just once. On a simple mission, she drove her hand through an enemy soldier’s throat. Death. Simple. Easy to grasp. One life taken, one scar marked. Another star on her forearm, an ever-growing constellation of corpses. Every star had a name attached, she remembered every single one of those she learned. For those she didn’t know, such as the faceless grunts she slaughtered on war theaters, she annotated a number in her brain. That was what Father Onyango said: one life, one scar. Lives are sacred, she couldn’t take them for free. So, she did that – she kept a record of her deeds on her skin. Yet, that soldier, the one she was sure was dead, was saved by paramedics and kept into what they called a coma. He was still alive, which made her scar fake, but he was like dead. No interactions with the outside world. Shut down. A breathing machine with a beating heart and no way to gauge his surroundings. Nadia struggled with that concept, wondering if she had to have that scar removed. In the end, she decided against it. It was as if the man was dead, at least in spirit. Even if he woke up, in some distant future, she had stolen years of life from him. So, the punishment was granted.

Seventy-eight. Seventy-seven. Seventy-eight.

A waltzer of numbers that meant everything and nothing. A huge wall clock was ticking, in the whiteness of the chamber, accompanying the mechanical noise of all those medical devices. Ghost was dancing on the plank between life and death, in a weird superposition of the two. Maybe, if she stopped watching her, Ghost would have died for real. Or would have woken up. A Schrödinger cat, waiting to fall in one of two possible states. But, for every doubt she had about her comrade, there was a certainty complementing it. That certainty was simple: Lemur was dead. Without a doubt. Her heart didn’t beat. Her mouth didn’t inhale. Her eyes didn’t see.

One life. One scar.

This time, on them. On the two Angels who killed her.

As her hands cut through their clothes as if they were made of butter, ripping their shirts off, slashing their chests from top to bottom, something happened to her. Something she didn’t understand at first. Something that Nivandra called ‘rage’. When she came back to Stratosphere HQ, Nadia was ‘enraged’, in the tiny girl’s words. ‘Angry’. Nadia blinked once, while still staring at the woman laying motionless on the bed. Anger was an emotion. Rage was an emotion. She didn’t think she could feel either of them. For sure, she didn’t feel them back in South Africa, not even when the church was burned, when Father Onyango was murdered. Was that an effect of the nanomachine treatment? This ‘rage’, this ‘anger’ that the old Father unleashed on the invaders? Too many questions, none of them logical.

“Still watching over her, Nagase-san?”

Nadia’s eyes moved to the door. An imposing figure stood there, wrapped in an elegant blue furisode, her face marked by elegant black brush strokes. Miho Teruchigawa. The Second Angel.

“Affirmative.”

Miho’s gaze moved to Ghost, to the breathing mask, to her chest going up and down, rhythmically. There was something in that gaze that Nadia couldn’t grasp, something different from Miho’s usual demeanor. Asking about that, though, was not a priority. So, she kept staring at the woman laying on that hospital bed, in silence.

“We need to talk, Nagase-san. This recent turn of events caused a lot of distress amongst us. In particular, Niva-chan didn’t take it well.”

“Request: Define take it well.”

Miho let out a sigh. Of course. Nadia ‘emotional void’ Nagase. Of course. It was like explaining colors to a blind person.

“She’s still crying every day... and she’s remarkably angry at both Yu and Claudia. I’m afraid she might act unwisely.”

“Acknowledged. I’ll talk to her about it.”

“You…”

Miho’s face turned into what resembled a funeral mask. Nadia. Trying to comfort someone else. With her absolute lack of tact. That couldn’t end well. Yet, she noticed a rare spark in Nadia’s eyes, something that broke the dullness of her usual demeanor.

“Answer: I regularly talk to her. She asks questions. I give answers. Her inquiries are illogical at times, and driven by sentiment, but admit nonetheless a precise response. Nivandra is intelligent, learns quickly. If more of His Holiness’s underlings were like her, the efficiency of the Stratosphere security corps would increase by eleven percent.”

“You are… fond of her?”

Fond of her.

Nadia had to scour her internal archives to understand what that meant. Fond of her. Indeed, she thought Nivandra was developing into a promising asset, one that could have outshined even Miho when fully bloomed. Nivandra had potential and seemed to be at ease around Nadia, contrary to literally everyone else. She was the only one whose facial expressions wouldn’t alter in response to Nadia’s calculating, logical answers. In a sense, yes, Nadia was fond of Nivandra, in the same way Father Onyango was fond of Nadia.

“Go back to your duties, Miho. One Angel is enough to keep watch. I’ll clarify Nivandra’s situation ASAP. In the meanwhile, keep a close eye on Yu and Claudia. The Renkas aren’t sturdy enough to keep them under control, if they decide to… act unwisely.”

“That I’ll do, Nagase-san. I shall inform you of every development that comes out of my observations.”

Nadia nodded, without averting her gaze from Ghost’s face, not even when the door slammed and Miho disappeared behind it. She closed her eyes, listened to her steps getting farther and farther, farther and farther. Then, when the noise died out, she took out something from her pocket. An old mobile phone, with physical keys and a minuscule display. That was a singular item she found while inspecting Ghost’s own room, after she suddenly fell into her coma. Nobody had ordered her to list exactly all what she found, so she didn’t report it. Instead, she kept it charged, kept it from switching off, so that she had access to its content. That phone rang pretty often, twice per day at least. Text messages. International text messages from a Hong Kong number.

“I’ve heard about Katja! Becky, I’m so sorry! Please, call me if you need to vent, I’m here for you!”

“Becky, what’s up? Call me back!”

“Becky?”

“Becky, please, answer!”

Whoever the sender was, they knew Ghost’s and Lemur’s real names. Whoever the sender was, they seemed very familiar with Rebecca. Nadia had considered several times, in the past few days, whether to call that number, to interact with that unknown person. Maybe, they knew something about Ghost’s state and could help her recover. Or maybe… maybe Ghost was a traitor too. Calling the number might have exposed her, like the auction did to her sister. That would have ended poorly: Nadia would have had no choice but to finish her off. Her eyes twitched, albeit slightly. She could have done it immediately, on the spot, but she didn’t want to. That was rich, coming from someone like her, someone who scored her first kill at the age of eleven and slayed a chaingear before she was fifteen. No, there was something about Ghost that stopped her. If it were Yu, Lucia, Miho or even the new Seventh Angel, Claudia, she wouldn’t have batted an eye. Somehow, the thought of offing Ghost, Lemur or Nivandra awakened a feeling of unease in Nadia’s chest. She buried her head among her arms, incapable of finding a logical reason why she was caring about those three, as much as she cared for Father Onyango.

“Question: Am I becoming… too emotional?”

Silence answered her, a silence she didn’t want to listen to. With yet another deep sigh, she stood up from her chair, finally breaking eye contact with Ghost’s body. Then, her fingers started to fiddle with the archaic mobile phone. Before pressing the green button.

“You totes should stay dead, bitch!”

A black silhouette looming on the bed, beaming at the motionless woman with a twisted smile. Jet black, neck-length hair, leather shirt, leather gloves. A black Venetian mask covering the upper section of her face, red lenses on her eyes. Black and red, just those two colors, contrasting with a pale complexion, pale but still more intense that Nadia’s absolute lack of hue. The silhouette gazed at the hospital room, cursed under her breath. Rebreathers. IV drops. She bit her lips, trying to quell her fury. Her chest was still hurting, a fresh scar crossing it from her collar bone to her hip in one long streak. That scar ruined her perfect body, made it less desirable. All because a South-African mutt decided that she deserved it. Deserved it for what? For killing a traitor? That wasn’t how things were supposed to go, that’s not how her ride to become the First Angel was meant to begin. Yet, the sister of said traitor was still kept forcefully alive, sturdily resisting despite being unconscious. Yu couldn’t get it. Even by tampering with the IV drops, even by sneakily removing the death suppressant from the saline solution, Ghost’s body didn’t show any signs of degradation. If anything, her muscles seemed more defined than ever, her body fitter by the day. She really didn’t look like someone who was going to kick the bucket at any time, much to Yu’s dismay.

She sat close to the bed, on the seat that was so jealously staked by Nadia for the past two weeks, before she suddenly decided to leave guard duty to someone else. First, of course, Nivandra. That puppy was getting on Yu’s nerves every day more, especially after Nadia promoted her to Fourth Angel.

Sure, you killed a chaingear when you were a teen, gal. You can increase blood pressure and make vessels rupture with your nail injectors. You can even look cool, with that edgy bandaged look, but you’re still a kid. Even if Nadia totes favs you.

After Nivandra, it had been Miho’s turn, that stuck-up ice bimbo in a dumb kimono. That someone like her could be above Yu in the pecking order was simply unacceptable. Miho wasn’t smart, wasn’t remotely as strong, as good looking as her. Sure, she was relatively good at fighting – but that was it. Miho had no redeeming factor, only the luck of being the second to join Stratosphere after the mutt. Second Angel by time, not by authority. As much as it pained Yu to admit it, the twins were a worthier Second Angel than Miho herself. But, now, they were no more. One buried six feet under, the other in a coma. Which was what led her there, in that room. The pale South-African snake had suddenly remembered her, so, after Miho was done with her time in the infirmary, Yu got the unenviable task of looking over Ghost.

Only because no other Angel was available, of course.

All out on some missions, except her. Otherwise, they wouldn’t even have allowed her to come close to Ghost – not after the Hong Kong incident and having played the role she played in slaying her sister. Still, they didn’t have a choice – or, if they had it, decided to actively put her on duty to study her. There had to be sensors everywhere, hoping to catch her in the process of misbehaving. Which, of course, would have given the top dogs an excuse to kill her on the spot. She grumbled something unintelligible. At least, her peers seemed to despise Claudia more than her, which made for a wonderful scapegoat. There was no danger that the now Seventh Angel would get further than her in the chain of command. Everyone reviled her, and that was just so good. Granted, exposing herself as the new Seventh by helping Yu kill Lemur wasn’t bound to get her any sympathy, but what a way to show off. Yes, Claudia was a powerful yet disposable ally, almost as disposable as the Renkas.

Ghost’s chest was moving up and down, slowly, her lungs inflating and deflating. Yu’s fingers grazed her cheek, followed the curve of the oxygen mask, her varnished nail almost – just almost – delving into the skin, stopping at the last moment. Without the twins, she could have been the Third Angel, a position she coveted for so long – before the mutt promoted Nivandra to Fourth. Without the twins, Greschnik would consider her even more valuable as an asset. It was just a question of time. She just needed Ghost to die.

“Don’t wake up, gal. We don’t need you here. Go join your sis in Hell, yes? Do aunt Yu a favor, pretty please.”

Her finger kept moving on Ghost’s skin, reaching for her eye. It would have been so easy to pluck it out. So easy. But Nadia wouldn’t have accepted it. Nadia was the core of the problem. It was clear as day that, if all the Angels fought against her at the same time, they would simply lose. Her showcase after the auction had been proof of that, surprise notwithstanding. Yet, Yu couldn’t help herself. The thought of ripping Ghost’s eyes, of delving her nails into her orbits… it was almost aphrodisiac.

“You know what, gal? I’m, like, so gonna make you regret it, if you wake up again. Like, so much! And for what? Without that Lemur bitch, you are nothing special. Why didn’t you sync in death too, huh? Wasn’t your bond strong enough?”

Yu glanced around, scanned the room. Of course there were hidden cameras. Of course. If there weren’t, killing Ghost, suffocating her in her dreamless sleep, would have been easy. So, so easy. Annoying as it was, she couldn’t do that right now. But threaten her? Yes, she could. That had no effects, except soothing her own ego. Yet, that was precisely what she needed. She reached for her belt, unsheathed one of her countless knives, each with a name carved on – his name, the name of the boy she so much lusted for, the boy her body was consecrated to, the boy that never wanted to accept her as his lover. One knife for every time she had lustful thoughts about him and acted on them. Each knife forged in that absolute state of post-relieving bliss, her mind still lingering on the faint shades of residual pleasure. She could only carry a small number of them with her, but it was enough. One was enough for what she had in mind.

She licked the blade, two, three times, pointed it at Ghost.

“If you wake up, I’ll send you to your sis, yes? You are, like, so dead.”

The tip of the knife pushed on Ghost’s cheek, not enough to harm her but enough to let her feel the pressure, if her mind was still somewhere therein.

“I’ll kill you and that furry friend of yours, that other bitch that you so much value. You sent her a handmade doll, did ya? What’s that, you two be kids or anything? Say, you want to fuck her? Because if so, you are as depraved as her. No matter, though, because I’ll kill her too. I’ll slash her throat and cut her to pieces, then wait for her to regenerate and cut her again, yes? And let you watch it, gal. Let you watch it ‘fore I kill you too. Maybe… maybe this will be enough to pay for my scar, for the scar that pale snake carved on my perfect body!”

She pushed the knife a little more, just a little more. Enough for the tip to cut Ghost’s skin. Enough for a drop of blood to come out.

Enough for her eyes to open, all of a sudden.

Eyes that looked nothing like human.

Eyes with golden irises, black sclerae.

Eyes staring right at Yu’s soul.

And devouring it.

Red lights, sirens blaring, armed men in the corridors, machine guns in hand. Radio noises, communications bursting through, fragments of words and sentences mixed with guttural cries. Metallic clangs, doors shuttered, troops in stand-by, stopping in formation. Full tactical gear, goggles and masks, bulletproof vests too. Waiting. Waiting for orders. Two guards with riot shields kneeling in front of the small battalion, five more security agents right behind them. All of them with the Stratosphere logo. All of them breathing heavily.

“Containment breach in sector eleven. All units converge there and follow the protocols.”

The right timing too, with just one Angel in the facility, one Angel that was nowhere to be found. A5, Yu Vampyr, wasn’t responding to the internal calls. That wasn’t fair, it was her role to deal with that kind of anomaly, not theirs. Yet, there they were, sweating bullets as the clangs resonated stronger, as the steps came closer. They were watching over a corner, a surprise ambush for whatever came from their left. They couldn’t see said ‘whatever’ until it reached the corner, of course, but the same applied to it. The advantage was on their side. Numbers. Weapons. Tactical positioning. And yet…

“Unit six, copy! Anything from your position?”

No answer.

“Unit six, copy!”

That wasn’t good, that didn’t sound good. The fingers moved to the triggers, without resting on it, the safety disengaged. The steps. The steps became faster. Faster. Faster.

Then, they saw it.

The shadow. The shadow projected by the red lights, an intermittent shadow on the wall. A black presence, larger than a man, with an elongated face. And claws.

Sweat. Cold sweat running on the guard’s foreheads, under the helmets. Their training settling in, calming them down. As soon as it shows up, shoot. If it’s not human, aim for the torso. If it’s human, aim for the legs. Kill the monster, incapacitate the man. That was it. That was always it. Except, all they had were rehearsals and tests. No containment breach had ever happened, not in their Prague HQ. That was an absolute first.

The shadow grew larger, the steps closer.

Then, it happened.

A hand.

A black, clawed hand, grabbing the wall, crushing the concrete.

A foot emerging from the shadows, covered in fur.

A snout bathed in red lights, teeth glimmering, shining intermittently.

And a feral howl breaching the silence, making everything shake.

“A5! A5, copy! We are… AGH!”

“Oh my God, what is…”

“A knife! It’s wielding a knife in its mo… AAAAAH!”

“Formation broken! It went through! Unit seven, we are retreating! Cover for…”

“Unit five! Two guards injured! We can’t…”

“To hell with A5! Call A1, NOW!”

“Unit seven! Where is Unit six? Where is… OH GOD!”

“A5! A5, copy! Copy, please!”

Shut the hell up.

Yu threw the radio on the ground, stepped on it, until it fell silent. She was shaking. Her hands, her arms, her legs. Shaking. Everything was shaking. Her back laying on the wall of the infirmary, blood all over her skin, sullying it, her leather clothes torn to shreds, cuts all over her body. A bite mark on her right arm, her knives spread on the floor. Her mask broken down, her eyes, her true eyes, wide open, as red drops were dripping down her nose. All in an instant. It happened all in an instant. The rebreather ripped off, the IV machine thrashed, the bed overturned. Her knife seized. By teeth. By fangs. By a face that had nothing of human. Yu’s heart was pounding, pounding hard, through her exposed, slashed chest. The mark of claws, ripping through her skin, crossing the scar left by Nadia, in the other direction. All of a sudden. All. Of. A. Sudden. She couldn’t even react. In one second, that thing was on her, mauling her, tearing her armor apart as if it was nothing, clawing at her, biting her, staring at her with those beastly, golden eyes, eyes peering inside her very soul, after breaking her mask, revealing her face.

The thing, the thing that once was Ghost, let its saliva drip on Yu’s nose, as its tongue licked her skin, savoring it after pinning her to the floor, tasting it before the final bite.

Before running.

Running away through the door.

Leaving her behind, powerless, defeated, lying on linoleum, caked in blood.

Yet, still alive.

“That… bitch…”

She stared at the abyss. She stared at the fangs of the beast. At its open mouth. At the void of its eyes.

Yu laughed.

Laughed hysterically.

“That bitch… that bitch is done for. Yes, Nadia? Do your job! Kill her! Kill her! Like, kill her for real! HA HA! HA HA HA!”

With what she had done, there was no saving. Ghost, whatever was left of her, was going to be executed. That, that was the best consolation she had from that debacle.

Before losing consciousness, in the middle of her manic laughter.

“Unit seven! Unit six, copy! Unit six, copy!”

The officer kneeled on the radio, shouted, screamed into it, as the sound of steps grew louder, as the body of his commander was thrown against the concrete. The red lights, the blaring sirens. It felt so surreal. So unreal. The black beast towered over them, over the injured guards, after toying with them, disposing of them like rag dolls.

“A5, copy! A5! A5, please! Please!”

He was alone, the last standing of his unit. Everyone else was sprayed on the floor, unable to talk, to walk. Still breathing, maybe. It was hard to discern. And yet, yet the beast wasn’t moving. It was simply staring at him, a knife handle kept among its fangs. At least two meters tall. A wolf-like head. Black mane, white fur on its torso, splattered in blood. Clawed feet. Clawed hands. No tail, though. Golden eyes, quiet fury gleaming through their irises. The officer stared at them for a long second, incapable of averting his sight. There was… something in them. A spark of intelligence, of humanity. He remained silent, immobile, as the beast gazed at him, as their stares locked.

Then, the wolf went on all four, quietly strolling past him.

Without attacking.

Without any hostility.

The officer’s body remained frozen, as he kept following the creature with his eyes, turned his head around. Until the wolf disappeared in the dark, in the direction of the exit door. Then, the red lights finally went off.

Only for a guttural cry to pierce the silence.

The officer screamed, his head tucked deep among his arms, curling like a fetus in their mother’s womb. A shape fell near him, bounced on it, once, twice, the metallic thuds echoing in the narrow corridor.

The wolf.

The wolf was laying on the floor, trying to get up, howling in pain.

And, on the other side of the room, the side the cry came from, a figure stood.

A pale woman with platinum hair, donning a green tank top and baggy camo pants. And black gloves, drenched in red.

The guard’s mouth fell agape, his prayers answered. The miracle he asked for, the miracle they all asked for, was there to save them.

Nadia Nagase.

The First Angel.

The beast stood up, a guttural growl coming from deep inside its throat, the pain quenched as the skin repaired itself, as the wound disappeared under its fur. Standing on its back paws, it stared at the woman, at the obstacle in front of it. Only to be slashed again, before it could even process it. Pressure waves. Precise cuts tearing the air, arms like cracking whips. Diagonal, vertical, diagonal again. The wolf’s skin torn apart, slashed open, two, three times in a row, blood pouring out of the wounds, before they closed again, in the blink of an eye.

A howl. A howl towards Nadia, to threaten her, to warn her.

Then, pain.

A cry of pain.

In the blink of an eye, Nadia’s hand had pierced through its chest. Not a wave, not blade. Her bare fingers. Penetrating through the skin, the bones, the muscles, ripping through them as if they were made of butter. The wolf’s eyes wide open, its mouth agape, its muscles going limp, its breathing stopping. As its heart beat for the last time, the creature fell down, losing its balance, landing among Nadia’s arms. Arms that hugged it, in a way, which made the guard second guess himself.

Emotionless Nadia.

Was hugging the beast she had just felled.

That… couldn’t be real.

Then, he met them, her eyes. The First Angel, the first Angel was staring at him, right at him.

“Order: If you can walk, gather the wounded and bring them to the infirmary. If you can’t, call someone who can. I’ll take care of the monster’s corpse myself, before the press comes knocking at the door. I’ll bring it to the warehouse, so that we can incinerate it later. Understood?”

The guard stood up, performed a military salute.

“L… loud and clear, sir!”

“Addendum: Look for A5 and report on her status immediately, once you know her whereabouts.”

The officer nodded again, his legs still trembling, his spirit reinvigorated. He had just witnessed Nadia Nagase in action. Her no nonsense attacks. Her precise, deadly style. That was a sight to behold, something he’d treasure forever, something to tell his peers once they woke up. Nadia saved them. The Platinum Angel graced their unit with her presence, they owed her their life. That’s why she was the First. That’s why no other Angel could take her place. Her strength, her charisma, her cold-hearted precision. When they needed her the most, she came. She came, she finished the monster with one strike, she left with a laconic order.

In the silence of the corridor, the soldier kept watching, as the woman walked slowly away, still somehow hugging the body of the beast.

Then, everything went quiet.

And he let himself fall on the floor, as the adrenaline started to wane.

Where are you?

I can’t hear you

anymore.

Where are you?

Your heartbeat. Where is it?

Your thoughts.

Your laughter.

Your pain.

Your pleasure.

Where are

they?

Tell me.

Call me.

Shout at me.

Yell.

Cry.

Anything.

Anything but

silence.

Please.

Katja.

I need you.

Where are you?

I’m

I’m not

I can’t

You and I

Are one and the same.

Where are you?

Katja.

Please.

Katja.

I beg you.

Talk to me.

Say something.

Feel something.

I need you.

Please.

Please please please please

pleasepleasepleasepleaseplease

Katja

KATJAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

AAAAAAAAAAAAA

AAAAAAAAA

AAAAA

AAA

…

I’m

I feel

so alone

without

you,

sister

please

say

something

“Becky?”

Uh.

A voice.

That’s not Katja’s

voice.

Who.

What.

“She’s waking up! She’s waking up! Becky’s waking up!”

“Okay, I get it, boss, but stop jumping around all excited, please?”

Voices

know.

But who.

Where.

I must

I need to

open

my eyes

again.

First, darkness. Then, slowly, something else. Pictures. Silhouettes. Sheet metal. Hard to gauge where and when. Yet, she was there. Sensations. Odd sensations through all of her body. As if time was passing slower. As if her senses were amplified. Her smell. Her sight. Her hearing. Her touch. Everything felt stronger, louder, sharper, more fragrant. Yet, it took time. It took time for her brain to process it. Her thoughts were jumbled. Something was amiss. Flashes of memories she didn’t know she had. Pictures of Yu, of Yu being mauled, bitten, slashed, pictures of her broken mask, of her scared face, as the claws – her claws? – carved her chest with a new wound. What happened? Her sight was coming back, the silhouettes clearer and clearer. One was huge, yellow skin wrapped by jeans and jacket, a fin on top of its elongated head, emerald eyes to complement its figure. The other was smaller, in comparison. The first detail that struck her was the cape. That red, torn cape. Then, the ears, the twitching wolf-like ears peeking from her head. Then, at last, the eyes. Black sclerae, shining irises. Her brain connected the dots. Her heart sighed with relief.

“L… Lucia? B… Blade?”

Rebecca started to understand the situation. Her body, though, felt odd. Foreign, as if it wasn’t exactly hers to begin with. It wasn’t that different, but things didn’t add up. Her hands. Her feet. They just didn’t respond as they used to, it felt like their shape was wrong. She didn’t look at them, not yet, almost scared of what she could find. However, before she could even start to elaborate on that, Lucia sat on the bed, put her paw on her head, patted her hair.

“This is a safe house, Becky. In a couple hours, we’ll fly back to the Mattanza and bring you with us. Just… take it easy, yes? You’ll have a lot to take in.”

“A lot to take…”

Lucia’s paw went down, down to Rebecca’s chest, down to Rebecca’s hands. Rebecca followed her movements with her eyes, as if they happened in slow motion. Until her gaze landed there. On what she previously called her hands. A loud cry escaped her lips.

Paws. Black wolf paws, not unlike Lucia’s. The fur went up till her elbows, before gradually thinning up, leaving room to her skin, to the white gown she was wearing.

“What…?”

“Sshhh, it’s fine. It’s fine.”

A hug. Lucia was hugging her. Hugging her as she slowly realized what happened. Why her ears were feeling funny. Why her legs were responding differently. Why her senses were so acute.

“A… a mirror! Give me a mirror, I…”

Blade was already carrying one, as if waiting for that exact request. He lifted it, let her gaze at it with her breath held.

Messy black hair, spiky even, framing a human face. Wolf ears peeking up there, of the same color. Fur around her arms, starting slightly over her elbows, ending in clawed paws. Black sclerae. Golden irises. Rebecca blinked once, twice. The wolf hybrid blinked too, in sync, in unison. She raised her hand. The reflection followed suit. She touched her cheek. And, again, the reflection did the same. She gazed at Lucia, then at Blade, then at Lucia again, compared the hybrid in the reflection with the shape of the wolf girl staring at her. Then, she let out a trembling gasp, her voice suddenly feeble, almost a whisper.

“I’ve… I’ve turned? But… isn’t this… how?”

Lucia averted her gaze, her ears bending down.

“Kobase says it’s a side effect of the medicine he made from my blood. Turns out, you… huh, got more like me than we originally expected and that a… sudden trauma caused the beast traits to kick in.”

Luca shrunk even more, almost taking refuge inside her cape, avoiding Rebecca’s eyes completely.

“If… if you are mad at me for that, so be it. I… I deserve it completely. Giving you an untested drug, just because I wanted you… not to hate me… I’m so dumb, right? But… but we’ll… we’ll turn you back into a human, okay? We just need to steal some medicines from Stratosphere and you’ll be good to go! Please, Becky, t… trust me, even if only for this time. T… then, you can go back hating on me. I’ll… I’m just glad you’re safe.”

Rebecca sat still, looking at her paws, watching the fingers, the claws moving, without saying a word. She closed her eyes, focused on her thoughts. Emptiness. Katja’s feelings were gone. She had never felt so empty. So meaningless.

Katja.

Katja was

dead.

So, now what?

Memories flashing back.

Nivandra’s scream, as Ghost felt a sharp pain, Miho bringing her to the infirmary. Before she lost consciousness. Before she heard those words.

“Lemur has been killed.”

Lemur

has been

killed.

So, that was it. Katja.

Katja was gone.

Emptiness. A silence she wasn’t accustomed to. Loneliness.

All because

They killed Katja.

They would have killed Rebecca too.

If it weren’t for

her.

Lucia.

Her medicine.

Because Yu did it. Yu tampered with her IV. Yes, she did. She could feel it. No more death suppressant. Yu wanted to kill her too.

Yu.

That bastard.

THAT BASTARD.

Tears. Tears started pouring on her cheeks, flowing on her skin. It hurt. It hurt. Katja. Katja. Katja was. Katja couldn’t. She was…

A deep breath, as the sobbing went louder, as her words broke down.

“Th… thank you, Lucy. Th… thank you. I… you… you saved me, you saved me, but… but… Katja…”

Lucia nodded, hugged her once more.

“Take your time, Becky. Pour it all out. We’ll wait outside, so you can…”

“N… no! Don’t… don’t leave me alone.”

Her hands moved up, grasped Lucia’s body, brought it close to her, their foreheads touching.

“Katja… Katja… aaaaah… I can’t hear her, Lucy. I can’t… I feel so… aaaaaah….”

“There, there…”

A kiss on her nose. Lucia patted her a little longer, before standing up.

“I need to take care of something. I’ll be back as soon as I can. I promise we’ll turn you into a human again. You… shouldn’t suffer for my mistake.”

“Don’t.”

Lucia’s ears twitched at those words, unable to grasp their meaning.

“Don’t… what?”

“I need it. This power… this power you gave me. I… I need it, Lucy. Otherwise… otherwise I’ll never…”

“Rest a bit, Becky. Please, don’t… say stuff like that. I’ll be back, just.. wait for me.”

Lucia caressed her cheek with her paw, wiped away her tears. Then, she left the bedside, strolled to the door, bringing Blade with her. Outside of the room, Blade drew a sigh of relief, let himself slump on the metallic walls of the corridor.

“Bloody moonfish, I was scared she would kill both of us, boss. Having to deal with a second wolf girl wasn’t part of my plans.”

“I… didn’t expect that either, if it makes sense. I’ve just… made the best out of the circumstances.”

“Say, will she go in heat too? Tell me that’s not the case, you are already a handful to take care of – God forbid another one.”

Lucia shrugged, patted the sharkman on his head.

“Beats me. I guess we’ll deal with it when we deal with it. Kobase might find a way to stop the symptoms, by the time it happens.”

“Wishful thinking.”

“I know, but hopes are gratis.”

Blade reached for his pocket, took out a crumpled pack of Pale Horse cigarettes, brought one to his lips, lighted it up. He showed the pack to Lucia, pushed one cigarette out with his thumb.

“Fancy one too, boss?”

“No, thanks. The smell of smoke is so hard to wash away from my fur.”

“So, is that the reason you don’t like it?”

“That and the fact that it turns lungs into Swiss cheese.”

“Whatever. I’ll survive.”

Blade drew a puff, shook his head. Twice the wolf, twice the fun, twice the pain. He let nicotine enthrall his taste buds, as his nerves started to relax, the adrenaline flowing down the drain. It was always like that, on the Mattanza. Always a new problem to solve. Always a new annoyance. And yet…

“You did well, Blade. You handled the logistics of the safe house and the chopper wonderfully. Thanks for your support.”

He smiled at that remark. A cloud of thick smoke exhaled, his eyes closed. Lucia really valued his work, praised him when she had to praise him, scolded him when he needed to be scolded. So unlike Go. From a certain point of view, they complemented each other. Her instinct and power, his brains and acuity. An unstoppable team. Yes, despite everything, that floating piece of junk of a former fishing vessel was his place, a place made for him, a place he would have never dreamt of. A place he could call home. Now, his home had just become more interesting. He let out a loud chuckle, almost without realizing it. He couldn’t wait to seeing what the future held for them.

Nadia wrapped the gauze around her arm, the arm she herself injured. No new scar, no life taken. Instead, one life saved – even if nobody was allowed to know that. Not even Greschnik. She kept wrapping and wrapping, gently tending to her wound too, stopping the blood flow. It was hard to fake a convincing injury, so she went all the way through and struck her own forearm with all her strength, maiming it in the process. The pain was just momentary, one week at most and it would have subsided. She sat down on the cot in the infirmary, surrounded by battered security guards. Ice packs, gauze, plasters, drugs. The doctors were working overtime to keep everything under control, before Greschnik returned from his business trip. Of course, he’d ask questions. Of course some heads would roll. Nadia didn’t care about it, though, kept self-medicating her wound, surrounded by moans and curses. Yu, laying on a nearby cot, was still lights out, almost every inch of her skin covered in gauze, her leather clothes in tatters, her mask broken. Nadia had a good look at her features, something she hadn’t done in a while. From the day she met her for the first time, Yu had never shown her face in public. Nadia often wondered why, but she couldn’t find an explanation, so she assumed Yu’s face had been scarred or had some major imperfections. Yet, that evidently wasn’t the case.

“Commander Nagase, sir!”

She turned around, to intercept the owner of that voice. It was a guard, still donning his tactical gear but with his helmet off. Nadia recognized the uniform, the voice rang a bell.

“Hypothesis: You are the guard from unit seven that I saved from the beast.”

“I… indeed, sir! Martenson’s my name! I just…”

“Hypothesis: You want to know where the beast is and why I am wounded.”

The man fell silent, averted his gaze. Nadia kept rolling gauze around her wound, spoke again with her plainest tone.

“While I was transporting the body to the warehouse for disposal, the creature came back to life and slashed my arm. I was taken by surprise and couldn’t react. Unfortunately, I lost sight of it. It might be anywhere.”

Martenson gulped, his right eye twitched. Something capable of incapacitating Nadia Nagase. That couldn’t… possibly exist.

“Sir! Let me… let me dispatch a search team! We can’t…”

“Negative. You are all wounded. Yu is out of commission. I need time to heal. Sending a team out in these conditions is suicidal. We’ll resume search operations tomorrow. In the meantime, watch the news. A beast like that is going to be noticed, unless it changes shape to something less conspicuous – provided it can, that is.”

That’s why she was surprised, when the wolf shed its fur, turning into a smaller hybrid between Ghost and the beast. She had seen Lucia doing that once, but for Ghost… that was completely unexpected. Yet, somehow, that made the delivery straightforward. A girl with animal ears and fur patches was somehow easier to hide than a two-meter-tall nightmare. Of course, Lucia was ready. Her shark lackey and she were exactly where they said they would be, ready to take care of Ghost. Everything as planned, including the broken cameras and the wiped tapes. No evidence of their meeting remained. Nadia would have smiled, if she remembered how to do that. Instead, sighed with what she supposed to be relief. Ten days of careful preparations, almost thrashed by Yu – as usual. But, in a way, that gave her a convenient cover story.

“Nagase, sir, if Mr. Greschnik gets winds of it…”

“Yu will take full responsibility for this failure. I’ll take responsibility for not managing to prevent the creature’s escape. As Angels, it’s all in our hands. None of you will be affected by this debacle.”

She saw Martenson’s body melt in real time, as she pronounced those words, the adrenaline levels collapsing. Nothing better than having your superior officer tell you “you’ve done nothing wrong”. Nadia learned it by observing Nivandra. Whenever the youngest Angel was told that it wasn’t her fault and wouldn’t be punished for a mistake, she felt relieved and just let herself calm down. A weird behavior, and yet something she had seen pretty often.

“B… but what about civilians? That creature could…”

“Negative. Number of casualties among the guards: zero. Number of wounded: forty-two. Of which gravely wounded: two, including A5. The beast focused on incapacitating us. It was not going for the kill. Observation: It also left without attacking you, once it realized you weren’t a threat. There’s no logical reason to expect it to start mauling civilians.”

“R… right, but…”

“Question closed. Order: Stay down and rest.”

As Martenson finally relented, Nadia lay down on her cot, let her eyes close too, while her brain tried to answer the biggest open question.

Why?

Why did she hide Ghost’s phone?

Why did she call the number?

Why did she ask for Lucia’s help?

Why. Why. Why. Why.

That was illogical. That wasn’t her. Since when could she feel something?

As her mind drowned into that waterfall of contradiction, the sounds around her turned into a nondescript soup of noise.

Noise that still couldn’t free her from herself.

From what she was becoming.