Prologue
He couldn't take the spinning anymore. The world around him was nothing but a haze; objects in his vision were speckled as he stumbled over the concrete floor. All he wanted was something to collapse on, but he was never going to make it to the top bunk. Blurry-eyed and weak beyond his own comprehension, he fell to the floor in a lifeless pile. Nothing stopped the pain, though. It reached from his smooth ebony flippers all the way down through his webbed feet. If it was a steady ache, or throbbing, or any sort of pain other than this, he could have taken it easily. His advanced training in the military had prepared him for torture, pain, and anything else the enemy could throw at him. The spasms kept coming, though, stabbing him in the groan, piercing his side until he cried out in agony. There was something different about this wound, this pain, something that was destroying more than just his flesh. He could've sworn that the feathers were being peeled from his skin, scraped off layer by layer. Between the piercings and his skin on fire, the only sensation in his entire being was that of utter anguish. All he wanted was to faint, maybe even die. Anything to no longer feel his body lay helpless against the icy pavement. He was out of control, and he despised himself for it.
The air of the room was still thick and foggy, smelling of same odor that had filled his nostrils minutes before. It was a wretched stank, a mixture between must and rotten garbage. It made taking in oxygen difficult at best. He could barely tell he was in his own headquarters anymore, between the scents around him and the spasms that served to make his involuntary shudders of pain more intense. The presence was still there. He could feel them in the air, breathing in his precious oxygen. A malicious grin was plastered on their hideous face, succumbing to the beauty of their magnificent creation. This someone made the room fill with darkness that was unfathomable to the penguin. He had never felt such terror in his life, nothing that consumed him, that possessed his entire being the way this stranger had. This wasn't just some crazed animal, gone berserk in the zoo. The penguin knew that this person didn't want to merely hurt his physical body, no matter how long he lingered there, hovering over him, watching him experience pain unlike he had ever felt before. No, this creature was fighting for something much more maniacal, something of a much higher value. He wanted Skipper's soul.
