Fang looked around with restless vigil, which Omega wasn’t sure at the moment how to interpret that, either in fear of Omega which was perhaps would serve in Fang’s best interest. On the other hand, judging by his body language, he could be looking out for his pack, either with hope of them lying in wait for the right moment to attack Omega and saving Fang, or to the contrary it may be he that would be attacked along with Omega with suspicion that Fang harbored certain traitorous thoughts to the pack’s management. Either way though, it didn’t matter, be it one or many, the outcome would remain the same, a repeat of Fang’s prior tutorial in brutality. Still though, Omega couldn’t shake the feeling that something didn’t feel right, those feelings were proved justified when they arrived at the Hunter’s Association facility where an unhinged door marked the tell-tale signs that there had been an altercation of some sort. Omega didn’t wait up for Fang as he dashed toward the building in hopes that the situation had been abated to a standstill. He found his answer come to fruition, only not the way he had hoped, the building was empty with signs of a struggle as there had been broken stalls, busted tables, ripped posters and shattered glass from the other side of the building...this had been an ambush and Omega had stupidly left when he was needed most. Rage and anger at both his own stupidity and the persons unknown responsible for this travesty began to fill Omega’s circuitry with disgust. Then he remembered Fang...he had been behind this little charade somehow or another. He needn’t have to see Fang fleeing in terror to know he was doing so, nor did he need to guess where he was headed. Fang’s gutless betrayal would be mete out all in good time, Omega would personally see to that. But right here and now, his value as a guide to the whereabouts of his compound were of more paramount importance and Night and her student’s survival hung in the balance, and a friendly reminder to Fang’s services would reinvigorate his priorities as he suddenly spirited himself in front of Fang so fast that it had startled him into fear as if he were in the presence of an archangel ready to dole out divine judgment upon him.
“Oh shit no!!! No!!!” Fang screamed out in terror as he fell to the ground trying to back away from the now enraged Lhi’aan whom would keep his promise of horrible perdition to come. His efforts to flee in the end were impeded as his back was on the trunk of a tree, the Lhi’aan was now before him, and the palpable rage radiating from the being blazed as hot and as horrible as the gates of Hell itself.
“Shut up!” yelled Omega, his voice magnified to such a commanding and frightening timbre that reverberated through the lupine’s ears.
“I’d be tearing the hide from your flesh right now if you weren’t of such strategic value, so I’m going to give you this one final chance to redeem yourself, wolf, or so help me, I will cleave every inch of skin from your body and fry what’s left of your still-breathing carcass on a rocket engine!” Omega scowled heatedly as he molded his hand into a sharp blade as to further instill his assurances of horrific and grotesque disfigurement if he did not immediately comply, with which Fang in perceiving such a morbid end to his time here on Earth had no choice.
“B...but, if I do that, if they find out, He’ll kill me!” Fang cried out pleading, hoping to purchase some form of empathy from this tiny but powerful being to which Omega sliced off one of Fang’s fingers. The blood-curdling howl erupted before the bloody digit landed on the ground along with the steady dripping of blood that gushed from the stub that remained.
“You idiot, didn’t you listen to me before?! What made you think I wouldn’t hesitate to do the same?! As far as I’m concerned, you’re unfit to live, with the only grounds that I’m allowing your continued existence is so you can take me to Night to which you’d better pray that I find her alive because if she isn’t, I will slaughter your entire pack, you got that, every man, woman and child...and I will make you watch, then you will die.”
Fang listened to every word, even while he was choking on his sobs, even while the pain in his hand was excruciating beyond words, and long after his pride had been shattered to where he would do anything to survive, even if it meant that he would have his entire family’s blood on his hands. The morbid hubris that this towering hulk of muscle had now been reduced to a quivering mass of fear, an embodiment of subjection when it came to the presence of an aforementioned tiny but powerful entity who would stop at nothing to get what he wanted, something Fang once was but now had been subdued by powers beyond his measure of understanding.
“Y...Yes...sir.” Fang managed to stammer out, fearing for his life, especially as Omega reached his hand out and touching the bloody stub. Frozen in terror of further torment, he knew that there was no time to move his hand. He braced for the searing inferno he feared would fill his body again, but to the contrary, he felt as though the pain were made tolerable. It was still there but it was but a mere dull ache and sting by comparison and the bleeding had stopped.
“Now then, get moving unless you just so happen to be a glutton for punishment.” Omega said as Fang struggled to his feet and began bounding off into the forest. Without even looking behind him, Fang held no illusions of escaping. He suddenly came to the realization that Omega for the foreseeable future would be his shadow now, omnipresent, never leaving him alone. This awareness had only further made it more pertinent in instilling the hope that Night had remained unharmed for his sake, because if she wasn’t, gods help him.
Consciousness flooded back into Night’s skull, which at the moment was pounding. It didn’t take the pitch blackness obscuring her line of sight to tell her that she was in an unfamiliar place. The smell of beer and wolves were complimented by the muffle of their voices by walls indicating she was in a room somewhere. She started to get up, only to find that there had been restraints all over her body that bound her so tightly that her wings couldn’t move and because of the lack of blood going into her back extremities, they began to feel numb as she laid what she assumed was a cold slate floor. How could she have been so foolish as to let her mind wander or rather, to let the Beast get to her? How she was going to get herself out of this predicament would be difficult at best. Then a more frightening aspect began to occur to her, the children had also been captured, which she feared she may be too late.
“No, I can’t think that way. I have to be positive, I have to fight for them!” she said to herself in an attempt to empower herself to break her restraints to which after much struggling she panted. Whoever had tied her up knew their way around a rope, it was much to taut to contest its tensile strength.
“Oh gods, I can’t be this weak...I have to save my students! If only I hadn’t drove Omega away...I wouldn’t be in this jam.” Night resigned with a sigh when suddenly she heard a chuckle...a woman’s voice...Oh no, not her!
“My, my...talk about your unlucky breaks. All tied up and not a thing to do about it. Oh whatever shall you do and those poor students, how will you ever save them, my dear Night? I thought you promised them that they were safe with you. Guess it goes to show that even without me around people are still not safe with you around.” The Beast teased, appearing clearly in the pitch black before Night with her mildly amused smile glaring down at Night.
“I’m not talking to you, get away from me!” said whispered edgily as the other she-wolf who feigned an appearance as if she was hurt by her remarks, all of it false.
“Oh what’s this? Turning me away and you won’t even listen what I have to say? Oh well, that’s a shame and just when I was feeling generous to help you out but you know what, that’s fine. I know when I’m not wanted.” The Beast said as she turned away as if she were about to leave to which began to tempt Night, yet she knew it was a clever ploy, especially when Night’s hands were tied both figurative and literal sense of the phrase.
“You won’t trick me; we both know you only want to help yourself. I’m not buying your ploy! You’re not fooling me! I can find my own way out!” Night said with all the indignant sentiment she could muster to drive her point home, only to be broken when her counterpart replied.
“By that time, your children could be dead and you’d have nowhere to go. Do you know how many wolves there are in this compound, not to meantion you have no way to fight off a pack like that alone? So I think we should cut to the chase, the fact is that you need me right now and like I said, I’m feeling a little generous and even I admit I’m a little sentimental about those sweet little children.” She said with a slight chuckle to which Night grimaced in trying to get out of her binds...she would not submit to her.

“You must think I’m stupid! We both know if I let you back out again, you’re going to start back what to were doing ten years ago, you’ll kill everyone in the county on the first day. And I’ll be damned if I break my promise to Omega and set you free! I’ll find my own way!” Night said as she struggled all the more, doing her best to ignore the Beast’s words as she knelt down with a false charm as she looked to Night.
“Please, you’ll only hurt yourself, grow tired and give up...well that is if the crowd outside doesn’t get to you first and I’ll tell you now, it won’t be pretty. So now you have to make a decision, you can either keep wiggling yourself around which to be honest, you won’t be getting anywhere, or you can swallow your pride and find it in yourself to trust me to take care of things. But it’s like you said of course, you’d be taking an awfully big risk, and with me you never can tell, I might just kill everyone just for a laugh, or I might just take over long enough to let you out and leave you on your own to deal with the wolves...so hard to choose, but either way, you’re not going anywhere and those kids might be about to die as I speak. So go ahead, make your choice, but remember it’s your precious students’ lives on the line.” She said, which was surprising, she was making a valid argument, giving her a choice.
The Beast had changed so much since Night banished her away, and yet she never said she would help her. Just as she said, she might kill everyone on a whim. It was hard to determine whether Night would be trusting or gullible...gods! The tension couldn’t be any more rigid that it was now when so many lives hung in the balance. So in the end, she didn’t really have a choice.
So with little other options left, Night could do nothing more than hope she wouldn’t regret this, she was already betraying Omega’s trust to the agreement but there was no other way. She could only hope that in the end it would be a decision she could live with as she looked ahead in her mind’s eye of the Beast holding in her hand before Night a contract, a legality that would surrender herself to whatever the Beast had in mind, that after this, the binding that had held for ten years would be at last broken. She prayed it would be worth it as she placed her signature, every iota placed, all cross marked, signing slowly, hesitantly as though she was signing over her soul...perhaps this was what it was, selling her soul to ensure that others would live. She hoped it would worth it as even now she felt herself slipping away from control, her consciousness pulled back as the world shrank away into the darkness with only a crack to see reality out of. She could feel her body changing, getting taller, her wings changing from soft plumage to a leathery draconic as she was formed into her alternate state. But what crushed her was that after that entire struggle as she was before, now that the Beast was in control, she could snap the restraints like ribbons in an effortless motion. Night could hear the Beast hum to herself as she rub her wrists with a self-assured smile, knowing that with the faint crack of light from the door ahead, she merely had to open it and the rest, well, the rest would be at the mercy of the Beast as she gently turned the handle with such grace and finesse as the door opened.

Fang was utterly exhausted when he came up to the tree line that laid adjacent to the compound, an abandoned saloon that happened to still be standing on an old dirt road, clearly in its heyday it was a real swinging joint in what appeared to be in the 1970’s, but now a mere shadow of itself, the glory days long faded away like the words on the sign over the establishment. Now it was a haven for an underworld crime family whom cavorted in riotous living, the jukebox playing it’s old honky-tonk songs that were a hit in its time, the yellow orange lighting and flickering neon signs only revealed it’s filthy, dirty, graffiti rampant establishment, a perfect example of a health and safety nightmare where the pack could be heard, the sounds of inebriated laughter, the barroom brawls that took place amongst disgruntled and drunken members of this dysfunctional family. He could practically hear the collective brain cells dying in the wash of alcohol and distilled spirits being consumed in an almost perpetual binge. The smell of blood, vomit, urine and the musk of wolves with amorous intentions were to the brink of revulsion. To make the whole matter worse was that Night was in there amongst that gathering along with her hapless students whom needless to say were terrified. Behind Omega, Fang obviously was afraid, his hands were tied where he was damned if he did and damned if he didn’t on either side. He’d probably never live with himself if his family were killed, but then he’d never live at all if he went against Omega’s plan, the misery was more than he could handle as he skulked away. Omega was alright with that for now, if indeed Night was still alive then it would be just as well that he left and if not, he wouldn’t be hard to find.
So for the moment, Omega knew that he had to enter with some degree of tact and subtlety if it meant saving Night and her student’s lives. Omega would have to blend in, which as fortune would have it, Omega being made of liquid metal meant he was pliable; he could change himself, just as he was doing presently as he expanded himself, changing his features to that of a wolf. His flaming tail presented a challenge as it would need to find a way to vent or it could cause a danger to his reactor core. The solution was in making a rather large lighter that he would carry, a sort of pyromaniac in the family who had a thing for uniquely colored flames, especially this black shaded one. His glowing marks were some kind of glowing necklace his girlfriend gave him, but as for the rest, there was little else needed as Omega looked at himself in a broken mirror. He was a large, trim, grey wolf with long black hair and yellow eyes. The clothing didn’t change much but it did look a bit rough as befitting this rag-tag group. He worked on fine tuning his voice, making it from being of an intellectual tenor to a low, gritty baritone register. This would pass as acceptable as he made his way toward the establishment with nobody the wiser that he was in disguise.
The bar inside was comparatively worse for wear than the outside. Here in this den of scum and foul play, the residents were of the sort one would like to steer clear of. The wolves were dressed in various articles of clothing ranging from leather jackets and denim pants to wife-beater undershirts and shorts, to hoodies and sagging trousers and some wearing hardly anything save for a pair of shorts that clung a bit too tightly. The women of course were of similar atrocious apparel like tank tops, jackets, bikinis that were revealing. They were celebrating, indulging themselves in filthy lucre as they had a successful victory of catching the infamous Beast that was now in their possession and as a bonus, a bountiful feast that came with it after the festivities which were about to begin as a rather large wolf of a certain age came out from another room as they chanted his name.
“Talon! Talon! Talon!” they cheered with beers and fists raised and lowered with each call of his name as the wolf let out a loud howl which the others joined in unison and afterwards hollered, cheered and laughed to the glory of their leader. Talon as it appeared wore a rather long ponytail in as well as a braided chin beard. By Fang’s standards, he was a giant, standing at nearly 12’7” which of course the door and the entryway had been cut down and replaced with a larger frame and wider doors to accommodate him. He was muscular, his limbs massive. At his size he could with a degree of effort, fit an average sized human snugly in his jaws, which in fact he had done so on a few occasions when the taste of human suited his fancy. It was needless to say that he was feared not only by the community or even his own members, but even law enforcement as bounties had been set which was evident with the posters of his face, where over the years the amount increased and yet with the tallies marked on each poster, it was evident that the number of fool hearty bounty hunters had somewhere along the way met their grizzly ends at his hands. So it was in fact that he was the most feared person in the territory, or at least nearly rivaling the infamy of the Beast which naturally was his mode of thinking as he had ordered Night’s capture with one goal in mind, using her to breed his own personal army of Beasts under his namesake with ambitions of becoming soley uncontested in his conquest of the whole country. After all, he had the ambition, the charisma and the power in every aspect of the word to be in the makings of a fascist leader, all it took was rallying together the man-power, the resources and most importantly the mode of generating his army which of course would take years, but it was a start. So as he stood onto the bar which creaked and groaned in protest to his weight, he held his hands to settle this riotous crowd as he began his speech.

“My Pack, my brethren, and my beloved children...need I say more? My hats off to you guys, we’ve got this town in the clutch of our paws!” he said with a following of accompaniment of howls and cheers as his cohorts felt nothing but the complete admiration and respect of their leader.
“When you think about it...” he continued, “...they used to think we were just a bunch of noisy mutts who’d never accomplish anything. Now those same people tremble when they hear our name, we’ve even made their police our bitch!” he exclaimed which prompted laughter from the captive assembly.
“But I don’t think just taking over a small town would turn any heads our way, no, I think it’s time we remind them that they need to be kept in line and that they should be afraid, that they’d better not so much as step on our shadows because wherever our shadows touch is our turf! What we need is an old time enforcer to keep these people in line! So you may ask yourself, How in the hell are we gonna do that?! It’s simple really, because as of right now ,as I speak, we have the Beast in our possession!” he roared, almost with the fervor of a preacher giving his self-righteous sermon to a corrupt congregation and in response were the shouting and laughing that one would hear in the like of such environs.
“I have her here; I think it’s high time we had a look at her, how about you? Do you all wanna see our new weapon?!” he said raising his hands, prompting the crowd in affirmed concurrence.
“That’s right! Come on, bring her out here!” he said swinging his arm with excited enthusiasm, beckoning, no commanding her appearance. The stage was set, the players at their places, and the scene of the next act was about to commence. That was at least the impression at the moment, which leads to several moments and finally after a few minutes of absence as the mood began to die down into confusion, leaving Talon alone and looking very foolish at his inability to produce his Beast. Then came a wolf, who by appearance looked very timid, as though fearing that in heralding this most recent development would incur the wrath of Talon and he being the first and certainly most brutalized recipient of that wrath, but he had a duty to Talon and it would probably bode worse if he kept in silence as he went to Talon and whispered in his ear this most grievous turn of events. Talon within moments went into shock in hearing this most grievous turn of events. Night had escaped; she had somehow broken through her bonds, had slaughtered his strongest guards with horrific detail and had left leaving little trace to show she had been there at all, as if she had flown out. There were no footprints save for the last at the back door. So in essence...she was gone, after all that hard work, she had made an ass out of him and nobody, but nobody makes a fool out of Talon. As expected, with sudden and swift motion he grabbed the throat of the shorter canine to which he snarled, as though he were trying with every ounce of his being not to break his neck as he breathed steamily his command.
“You listen to me you little shit, I don’t care how you do it...I want that bitch back in this room by moon break, or I’ll rip into your flesh and tear out your beating heart!” he whispered as he turned to his crowd who in their silence heard every word he whispered his hot, angry breath on the terrified underling’s face as he threw him onto the floor with a thud, to which Talon turned at his pack who was equally terrified.
“What the hell are you shits staring at?! Get the hell out of my sight! Don’t just stand there, FIND HER!” he roared with his fanged jaws drooling with an almost frenzied madness to which nobody would stay to see how far it would go. They ran out, howling and barking in fearful desperation, stumbling over one another to carry out their master’s command.
All the while Omega had been listening with nobody the wiser, his appearance was flawless of course, but what aided in his disguise was the scent of wolf vomit and alcohol courtesy of Fang in which was paramount in blending in with the others who smelled little better than he did. Omega also felt he had played the part well, the inebriated bruiser who was being in the life of the party, though while maintaining this cover he found Night was here, “was” being the operative word as she had escaped. He could also hear in the whispers of evidence in the deaths of two guards, which seemed unorthodox for Night because she never had it in her to kill anyone save for the necessity of meat, but still Night was reputed for clean, quick kills. What he had heard was of carnage and sadistic butchery; something was wrong, very, very wrong. This may be something a rescue attempt by an accomplice with lesser moral fiber when it came to the ethics in taking one’s life that had either saved her...or in contrast had stolen her as a prize by a rival gang. Regardless of either case, it would be imperative that he had to track her down quickly if she was to live. That of course was his forte when it came to finding. Omega had the advantage that the wolves didn’t and that was sensory technology in addition that he had left a thin residue of his own nanites on her fur to shave minutes off his race against time. So feeling that his cover was no longer needed, he began to revert to his original state, after all, his small size and speed would make him harder to detect and the brew of wolf scent he was still swathed in would make him indistinguishable to the other wolves as he made his way through the forest while the others searched in mindless frenzy.

Within the span of five minutes, Omega had triangulated Night’s position; she was at the waterfall, the same one she had went by every now and then. It was where her mother took her to before she had died. Night often came here seeking clarity, that perhaps the reflections in the rippling pool held all the answers. But as Omega approached, he noticed something more darker, Night wasn’t here for answers...she was frantically washing blood from her hands, the terror on her face was apparent as her eyes were wide, pupils dilated and tears streaming as she was trying to scrub away the tell-tale signs of murder, as though the sin would never wash out though the blood would part of that blood was her own as she had already clawed away some of the skin and fur from her paws. Omega could practically hear her soul screaming out in fear of damnation as though God himself would see this and angrily throw her into everlasting damnation. Omega couldn’t watch her do this anymore as he took her hands, she hardly noticed his hands but knew something was grabbing them and she tried to fight back. Omega had to call her name several times until he yelled out her name to which she looked at Omega, the look of shame and of terror and everything associated with a lost innocence to which she buried her face onto Omega’s chest, bawling out with pain on a level even she knew was possible.
“Night...I need you to look at me.” Omega said calmly stroking his hand through her hair.
“N-No....I-I’m a M-Monster, Omega I’m a Monster, I can’t look at you...I can’t look at anyone!!” she cried out, clutching tighter as though she would hide her face from Omega forever, that she didn’t even deserve to show her face and look upon his.
“Yes Night, Yes you can. I haven’t judged you before, what makes you think I’d start now? You did what you did because you were scared, these were people whom meant you harm, that wanted to do terrible things to you. Any rational being would have done the same if they were in your place. That doesn’t make you a monster, it makes you a frightened little girl who would do anything to get out of harm’s way...including killing if it meant they’d kill you first. The only thing you are doing wrong now is calling yourself a monster, and I never want to hear you say that ever again...ever.” Omega said with the only crossness was in her self-loathing.
“Now then, look at me. I’m here now, there’s nothing to be afraid of.”
Night slowly lifted her head to look into Omega’s eyes, those eyes though artificial, gave a genuine impression of compassion as he smiled at her.
“Now that wasn’t that hard now was it? Everything’s gonna be alright from now on...well, that is if we can get the children back.” Omega said as Night cringed with fury with herself.
“Oh gods no...I forgot the children! How could I be so stupid?!” she cried out.
“On the contrary, running was the best thing you could have done, because now they’re out looking for you and the fort’s been left defenseless. That means we can still save them with nobody to stop us, well except Talon, but I’ll cross that bridge when I get there. While I’m settling things out with him, you can use the distraction to rescue the children and see them to safety.” Omega said as he laid his plan out to which Night was still skeptical of the endeavor.
“But how am I to be sure I won’t be found out, suppose one of them comes back?”
“That won’t be a problem. Stupidity and alcohol are a potent mix; add fear and it only makes them reckless. But just to be on the safe side, I made them very suggestible; I touched several of them while I was in the bar, biohacking those few to have your scent appear in different places, farther away from the compound. They’ll search for hours before they grow tired along with the horrible hangover they’ll get once they sober up, then to bring the final coup d'état, I amplified their nervous system with the sensory overload on their hangover from my biohacking which will put them out of commission for hours, the conditions couldn’t be any more perfectly in our favor.” Omega said with enthusiasm.
Night took a moment to drink in the information to which Omega had described, the perfect storm it seemed, but she wasn’t so naive as to think there wouldn’t be any risks, nothing was ever that easy and even in their confusion they still had a chance to spot her, she had to use her stealth and move cautiously. But with Omega reunited by her side, her chances were significantly better than if she had been alone. So for the time being, they had a plan, one that would succeed.
“Ok then...” Night said with growing confidence. “...together then, let’s bring everyone back home.”
Without another word, the two went out, heading back towards the compound, knowing the way back wouldn’t be a calm stroll through the woods, but if they were clever and if they were careful in avoiding detection, the rest should be fairly straightforward.