Hi, guys!

Look who's back, back again, Bloodlustful's back, tell a friend!

Look who's back, look who's back, look who's back, look who's back!

It is Bloodlustful!

Sorry, I couldn't resist…I am a major league Eminem fan and "Without Me" is one of his very best songs, but I digress.

Anyway, this latest one of my Balto fanfics involves how Niju, after running into that forest thanks to his being frightened of change(which of course caused him to become and do all of the awful things he was and indeed in the first place)sees a means to set everything right for himself and the rest of the universe he lives in, literally and forevermore in every way on every count, concerning what has to do with anything and everything concerning him, Balto and everyone who revolves around Balto, much to his alarm(especially since it's quite by freak chance).

But what little is left inside of him of what would have been his innocence and goodness, and its leading to a normal wolf's kind of life, that was yanked from him by some kind of traumatizing moment in his life(of course he keeps it secret to himself and will never explain it to anyone)spurs him to capitalize on that opportunity.

Only one problem…also by freak chance, the time in which it happens is also at a time when Aleu's entire wolf pack, as well as Nava, have all been killed…by none other than Steele, who they were unfortunate enough to happen by when the ones who aren't Nava were forced to get onto another iceberg which ironically took them back to Alaska after a godawful thunderstorm along with Aleu.

Worse yet, though Aleu, unlike Nava and her pack, survived, Steele is still plenty alive, as well, and a sneak attack he did on her during the chaos caused by his assault on Aleu's pack, Nava and Aleu herself has caused her to be rendered helpless despite how she's still conscious.

It isn't long after Niju does his thing that he revels in what he just did…only to happen across Steele himself, and the latter wounds him in a way so that, due to what was required for him to do the deed he did, Niju is badly infected by a unique, special, very dangerous kind of, well, infection.

As in, if he does not fight and defeat Steele(who he sees everything about his traumatic incident combined with what it caused him to become in, only cubed on both counts), he will die from that infection.

So he's got to bring Steele down at all costs, especially since God only knows what else Steele will do if he isn't stopped, and this would be the case even if Aleu weren't helpless despite being the sole survivor of Steele's attack.

What will happen, what will that lead to and what will that turn out to be as far as his life, Aleu's and those of everyone in Nome, but especially those of Balto and the rest of his family?

Find out in this story, which features a distorted version of "The Infection" by Disturbed, albeit in the background instead of being sung.

THINGS TO NOTE:

This story takes place nine days after the events of the third Balto film, namely "Wings Of Change."

Should you be a fan of the Aleu X Niju pairing, you will like this story a lot(though I'm not giving away spoilers, so you'll have to know why via reading this).

I own none of the characters, since they all belong to the "Balto" trilogy, and I don't own the song "The Infection" which I'm distorting here, the way that it belongs to the rock band "Disturbed"(which, btw, is one hell of an awesome band, so if you're into hardcore, dark rock music, you should give some of their songs a try).

Niju's Infection Must Die

For a good two months now, Niju, who had run away into a forest after things which caused everything in his life to fall apart and indeed be torn asunder occurred in what was already a horrid way for him to be living in a classic case of things going from bad to worse, was still alive, but things hadn't gotten any better for him otherwise.

You see, besides the fact that he'd barely managed to find enough food to maintain his life and had to make sure that no one could ever find him, something he also only barely managed, he was feeling a lot of pain throughout his body, but it wasn't physical.

It was emotional agony and mental anguish which came from the knowledge of how horrible he became(despite it not being true evil)after a traumatic experience in his life that he refused to explain to anyone or do anything but keep to himself and therefore was unknown on account of how said experience made him afraid of change and it led to him becoming an awful guy who would not allow anything to stop staying the same no matter what.

Indeed, his innocence had been torn away from him due to that less than wanted time in his life, and so had what kind of a much better wolf he might have been otherwise, and his very great knowledge of this was actually clawing at him as he, despite doing all he could to act as if he didn't feel it, was unable to help but feel a small amount of guilt, even if it did take something like what happened to him in the end to make him, to a certain extent, see how wrong so many of the things he'd done were, and what that meant he was.

Thinking that it might be a good idea to end it all, since, as far as he knew and, in fact, was concerned, there was no reason for him to stay alive and his existence really did serve no purpose, he was considering the quickest, simplest way to take his own life on the night that he decided it was best to just kill himself and be done with it.

Unbeknownst to him, however, there was to be a special chance for him to do something far, far better(read: one-hundred and ten percent better)than that just as he had come up with what way to make his heart stop beating forever, ironically, and it showed itself when one hell of a long, shiny, bright(almost blinding, in fact)shooting star came by and its essence penetrated his mind to show him there was something he could do to right all his past wrongs and literally set everything right for all time.

See, this was a special kind of shooting star which produced mysticism, the likes of which, on both the star's count and that of its magic, only came along once every six-hundred years, and a voice in his mind made from its mystical qualities said to him: "Niju, do not end your own life. Make it mean something after all. There is a way to atone for what you've done, especially since none of it was ever truly evil, and neither were you. You were scarred by that undeserved incident growing up. But now you can set everything right for present and future alike, despite how nothing can be changed about the past. It is the perfect opportunity to right your wrongs. Say yes, and literally everything that is current and to come, for canines or otherwise, will be turned into things that would be the best possible ways for things to turn out, and the entire world will be a utopia of its own, especially for all living things therein. All of this eternal, of course. Say no, however, and I am sorry to say things will alternate between staying as they are and becoming better and worse, but worse more often than not. The time to decide is now. Yes or no?"

What tiny, miniscule amount was left of Niju's pre-scarring incident self surfaced just then when he was given a look into the star, and because of that and just what would come naturally when anyone who wasn't truly evil was shown such a thing as this, Niju quickly yelled: "YES!"

"Well done. You made the right choice." the voice in his mind said. "Though I will now be forever departing despite how this sort of star will be showing itself again every six-hundred years in the future just as eternally, you have made it so that not JUST this world, but all of the universe, will be perfect as can be, or, at the very least, as close to being of that status as is possible to be the case. Your mistakes have more than been made up for and I'm glad that what miniscule amount of what you surely would have been if fate hadn't shortchanged you so was able to make itself known in time so that you made this count. Soon enough, this will all be known. You have gone from pseudo-villain to hero in the best way. Many kudos, Niju, and best wishes."

After the voice vanished forever, Niju was amazed and thankful, both on incalculable scales of magnitude, that he wasn't too far gone or a lost cause or anything similar after all, and saw everything around him forming into the best it could possibly be, and he had clearly created a future plenty better than what might have been if he said no and one that would, at a lot of times and in a lot of cases, be far less desirable in general should he not have said yes.

Fortunately, he did say yes, and was proud of himself for that, but the good feeling of his marvelous decision which was indeed the right and smart thing to do and what it would mean, in spite of how nothing would ever reverse or change what was now becoming reality, was nevertheless short lived.

You see, at this time, when all of this happened and, despite surprising and confusing Niju at first, led to him doing the very best thing he possibly could ever have done, there was also a great deal of carnage going on in Alaska, something Niju was utterly unaware of, though this would not remain the case with him.

A horrible thunderstorm had struck the region of Russia where Aleu and her wolf pack had been living, and it just happened to occur in a way that brought them back to the tip of Russia that they'd floated off to on that iceberg, and one which caused another iceberg to form, at that.

It subsequently forced the entire pack, Aleu or otherwise, to have to get onto that iceberg with what the hell it was causing and what the fuck that shit meant, and, with such utter irony, indeed, the iceberg was made to go right on back to Alaska thanks to the force and power of the thunderstorm.

By the time it was over, the final thunder striking and the force thereof had caused them to, just as they reached the tip of Alaska, be knocked off of that iceberg, which was thankfully close enough so that they landed onto the, well, landscape of Alaska instead of into the freezing cold water.

Still, they were all in a haze from what they would soon discover was them lucking out thanks to how the thunderstorm's appearance could have just as easily driven them any other place, and Aleu, despite doing all she could to lead the best way possible, was able to do just that…lead the best way possible, but it was still a way that could have been done a lot better, something that the forces of nature that led them back to Alaska would not allow.

By the time their heads were all nice and clear, Aleu could tell where they all were at once and she said: "Oh, my God. We're back in Alaska. That thunderstorm caused us to go onto a new iceberg of its own making that carried us here just as easily as it could have carried us anywhere else. We're damn lucky to at least be fucking alive."

"True, that." said one of the other wolves, and another said: "But where do we go from here, leader?"

A third one said: "It would be far too dangerous to look for a forest or a mountain or even a grassland, covered in snow or otherwise, since there are so many of those, and we could well get lost to the point where we are all killed."

"So those sure aren't options." a forth wolf stated, with a fifth one nodding and saying: "Any suggestions, boss lady?"

"About the only one that I can think of is to take you guys to that town in Nome where I used to live." Aleu replied. "Yes, the same Nome where my parents and siblings live. This might be a sign that fate is fickle and that I wasn't destined to have the sort of life I had with you guys for a time, after all, but there's no time to focus on that. We've got to think up a way to make it so that we can go there without causing any problems or anything getting awkward."

"I do believe that will be much easier to do if we get some rest first." put in a sixth wolf, and a seventh one agreed: "Yeah, we're all pretty badly worn down here from what we had to do to escape being killed by that thunderstorm that led us in the best way we could ask for, kind of like you did as well as you could, but neither was as good as it could be, which you wish were otherwise along with the rest of us."

"No argument here." Aleu stated. "Okay, let's get some shuteye, everyone…WHAT THE FUCK?!"

The last three words came from the fact that she and the other wolves were seeing the corpse of a familiar, old gray and white wolf named Nava…very badly torn open and bloody despite still technically being in one piece, and then they saw a pair of blue eyes in front of them that belonged to a malamute who had been Balto's archenemy from the get-go.

Yes, indeed, it was Steele, who said: "Hello there, Aleu. I just happened to be going by while keeping concealed in the fucking forest that I fled to after I became the hated outcast that Bingo, otherwise known as your dolt of a father, used to be and actually caused me to become. I also saw your mother dearest Jenna with him, and although I didn't make my presence known to either of them, I DID hear some things they were talking about, including you. It was soon incorporated into your so-called quest and how much they missed you so despite being glad you found the life you were meant for, or so you and they thought. In the process, I learned of Nava and Niju, and quite a few things seem to be changing all around us and everywhere else. Seeing Nava go where he was in his final moments, which would be his final moments thanks to me, namely, here, as he was undoubtedly going to look out to remember the last time that he ever saw you and remember you, I approached him in a friendly way at first, since he didn't know who I was. But then, after a brief moment of it seeming we were just getting to know each other, I sprung my attack, catching him completely off guard and easily tearing a nice, big, fatal wound in the old fool. I knew that, if nothing else, this would to some extent hit Balto hard thanks to it causing him to remember you and how you liked Nava a lot and vice versa, plus he and Nava liked each other well enough. And yet look here…I get the bonus package. You and your whole damn pack right here the fuck in front of me, nice and ready to join him. I especially look the fuck forward to killing you, Aleu, because let me tell you a little something, bitch…that'll hit him a lot harder than anything else might, all things considered. This is also my lucky day thanks to how you're all so exhausted and therefore sitting ducks, or should I say lying wolves? Time to fucking die, goners."

Steele went right for the tired wolves, and although Aleu screamed: "NO!" and bit him on his right hind leg as hard as she could to try and stop him, causing him to go: "YEEEEEEEEEEEEOOOOOWWWWWWWWW!" it cost her all of the vitality she had left and it went from bad to worse for her when Steele used his left forepaw to smash snow into the eyes of her wolfpack followers who would have otherwise done all they could to aid her and his right forepaw to smack her across the face so hard that she fell onto the entire right side of her body thanks to how he did the latter attack in a backhand swing kind of motion at full force.

"How dare you fucking do that shit to me, bitch!" Steele barked. "But I'm actually glad I didn't knock you out, because now you're helpless to do shit as I kill all of your followers and then, in a classic example of saving the best for last, will finally get the fuck rid of you, all after you've been fucking forced to see and hear me off your entire pack while horribly impotent!"

Just then, the other wolves had gotten the snow out of their eyes and Steele, seeing this, said: "Ah, so you guys can see again! Fabulous!" before tearing his way through each and every one of them, using his teeth and/or claws to tear open one or more vital parts of Aleu's wolves, all as he said: "Now you can fully see me shred all of you along with feeling and hearing it!"

After he was done killing them as they howled in agony and fright(rightfully and understandably on both counts), Steele looked to Aleu, who was starting to move again, but no sooner did she get up than did he perform an underhanded sneak attack in the form of a slash the fuck across her left torso side, right from her left shoulder region to her left thigh location, and she yowled in pain as she fell onto her stomach.

While what Steele did wasn't a mortal wounding or anything that would be permanent damage, it was plenty sufficient to make it so that Aleu was helpless, especially since he had caught her completely off goddamn guard, even though she remained conscious.

Looking at the remains of her wolf pack, her eyes flew the fuck open widely as hell and she screamed: "MY PACK! STEELE, YOU MONSTER! I'M GOING TO…!" but Steele cut her off by saying: "Do nothing as I go and find Niju. From what I'm seeing and learning from all of what's currently forming itself, without anyone, him or otherwise, knowing about said learning of it by me despite how they might be learning of it themselves, he was the one who made sure of it that all these changes, which appear to be ones for the best, would happen, but he's not going to live to celebrate it, and neither are you or any others that I decide need to die, your dipshit daddy included, of course. I'm going to bring him a little 'treat' as a reward for the deed he's done. Specifically, I'm leaving you wounded and helpless, but rendering him infected and a goner, since I've found a perfect way to do that along with how the hell to fucking find him easily."

Taking off after saying this, he thought to himself: "Oh, yes, my inhaling part of what his mind contained during the time he performed the act that he did and knowing that it meant I was both someone who embodied everything that traumatized him way back when, though in a complex, hard to explain, loose sense, and who will certainly cause him to see just how much worse he could have been and the one who would represent the darkest side of him most accurately, was a very good idea despite not knowing what I'd taken in at first."

Continuing to track down Niju, and realizing further how all of this was so, he said in his brain: "That said, and with how I didn't realize I'd breathed it in through my fucking nose when his transformation of everything into what it continues to become got started, along with the fact that it's also just now mixed in with all of the facts I've just found out and thought of and developed into the special, mystical way that I can infect him so that he'll be a goner, this'll be only too easy."

Seeing Niju soon enough after keeping focused on where to go, Steele thought to himself: "Bingo! And it's funny I should think that, the way that I address Balto that way in order to make fun of the little shit, or at least did beforehand and will if given the chance again, anyway. So, then, first I fatally infect Niju and then I take as much of what looks to be what's changing all of everything for the best for myself as possible. After that, it's uphill for the entire world, it appears, but for me most of all! But I'm only going to get one chance to do this, since I have to catch him unawares to be assured success and there's only so much time I'll be armed with what I've currently got, so now I've got to concentrate entirely on my surprise attack here."

Now we get back to how Niju had, at least briefly, had this time, been basking in how great it was that he'd done what he'd, well, done, and what it would mean, but after that brief amount of time, he heard a voice say: "OH, NIJU!"

"What the hell? Who the fuck just called my name?" he asked as he turned around, only to see Steele leap the fuck out of the trees from behind him, and before Niju could move, or do shit, really, Steele slashed him across the top of his right forepaw, and as Niju howled(no pun intended)in pain, Steele began laughing evilly and told him the following things.

"Hello, Niju. The name's Steele. I found out about your little shooting star stunt and inhaled some interesting facts about it due to when you started it being when said inhaling occurred, and it's all allowed me, the epitome of what kinds of things traumatized you way the fuck back when and what you'd be if there was someone who represented the worst you possibly could have been, to be given, temporarily but now successfully, the ability to give you a life ending infection. Everything else might be becoming the best it can be, but now Nava is fucking dead thanks to me and so is Aleu's pack, while the bitch herself is helpless thanks to how I gave her a clawing wound that made her so despite how she's not unconscious and she isn't infected like you are, either. The fact is, as much of what's now becoming an everlasting worldwide utopia thanks to you will, no doubt much to your shock, go to me as possible. And there isn't shit that you, Aleu, Balto or anyone else can possibly do to fucking stop me. So treasure your final moments of life and know that you made that soon to end life mean something while you can. I should add that one of the reasons you can't stop me is that you can only cure your infection by killing me, since I was the one who gave it to you after taking in a bit of what you got into motion despite your being ignorant of that fact, and even without it, you couldn't possibly fucking take my ass in a fucking fight, so yours is done for."

Niju once more didn't get a chance to do a thing, as Steele was off like a shot right after he fucking said all of that and caused Niju to go pale with aghast shock in the process, but Niju knew that something had to be done, so he did the first thing that he could think of.

He let loose a massive howl(read: he howled as loud as he could)and, ironically enough, the infection that Steele had given him and the cuts that showed Steele's having done so being fresh in that part of his forepaw made it so that his howl was amplified by the magic from the infection mixing in with what magic had caused these beautiful changes for the best, which were now reaching the point of overlapping a quarter of the world before they continued to be on their way to overlap the whole of it, and this allowed it to carry long enough so that it went all the way to where the hell Aleu could hear it from where she was.

Aleu became surprised and she exclaimed: "Dear God! If that's Niju, then Steele has to have given him that infection, with what the hell the monstrous son of a bitch bastard fucking described and what the fuck it will mean if something isn't done fast!"

She, like Niju, did the first thing she could think of, which was to howl at the top of her lungs, which was, again, like what the hell was the fucking case with Niju, and lucky for the both of them, it just so happened(my God, were there a lot of things that were occurring quite by chance just now), with the plane flyer named Duke wanting to take Kodi for a ride in the "Balto Flyer" at this time and indeed doing so currently, much to the delight of both of them, that said plane ride was above the sky in the area where Aleu was currently located.

Hearing this, they looked all about for where the howl might have come from, and Aleu once more howled as loudly as she could, with Kodi suddenly being able to tell which part of the ground it had to be coming from after that, so he moved as so to signal Duke to fly down there, which Duke promptly did, and much to the shock of them both, they saw the injured, impotent Aleu.

Landing his plane, Duke quickly got out of there along with Kodi, who was glad that she saw both a man who clearly wanted to help her alongside her brother, Kodi, now all grown up like she was, and exclaimed: "KODI! You have no idea how much of a sight for sore eyes you and this man you were apparently flying with in that plane are!"

"ALEU? What happened here?" Kodi said. "Me and the man, whose name is Duke, sure as hell are glad that we heard your howl, given that you wouldn't have gotten what help you obviously need right now, but…HOLY SHIT! YOUR WOLF PACK!"

He and Duke gasped as they saw the now bled out corpses of Aleu's wolf followers, and Aleu quickly explained everything, unable not to cry as she did so, and once she was finished, Kodi snarled: "Oh, my God! That son of a bitch piece of shit! That fucking asshole! He's got to pay, but where is this Niju you told me about alongside that lousy-ass, rotten-ass Steele?"

Although Duke could not hear them doing anything but barking, he knew something was up which was very important and drastic, indeed, so he got ready for if he needed to use the "Balto Flyer" to get the two canines to where they needed to go if it was too far away for them to go on foot, something which proved to be a very good idea.

Aleu told him: "From what I heard from his howl, he's somewhere in a deep forest in this state of Alaska, though about the only way I can think of getting there is to be flown to the forest in question, which will probably only happen if he continues those loud-ass howls he's delivered. But we have to at least try, and so I need Duke here to fly us there if he can, at which point a lot will have to be explained if there's time to do so! Let's let him know we need that assistance!"

Kodi nodded, and he and Aleu both started to bark while pointing to the plane with their noses, so Duke promptly got in there and let them both in, as well(it was lucky that this was after he'd decided to modify his plane so that, if two dogs or people wanted to take a ride in it, it could happen, which he'd done in case one or more of Balto's children or, alternatively, him and Jenna or any kind of twosome, dog or otherwise, could have that fun-ass flight).

Taking off after that, it was lucky for them that the direction in which they were going proved to be the source of another howl of Niju's, this time even louder, since he'd refilled his lung as much as possible for this next one of them while ignoring the thought and feeling of his current infection, what it was already doing to him and possibly would do to him, though only thought was part of the latter case at the moment,

"That way, huh?" asked Duke as he looked back and the two canines nodded, and so he kept going in the direction that proved to be the right way to go, a moment or two later seeing a part of a forest where a dot was present on the ground and Aleu looked down and let out a loud howl of her own once more, with Niju confirming that it was him down below upon seeing the small dot in the sky from below by managing to produce one last howl before he would need to rest his lungs for a time(at least as far as that was concerned, since he would at least still be able to talk, think and move).

So Duke flew his plane down to where Niju was and once more landed it, with Aleu and Kodi getting out of it before the former said: "Niju! Thank you for helping us find you! Tell us what we need to know fast, though some we might already know, but we have to make sure!"

"Aleu! Didn't think I'd ever be happy to see you before, but I am now! I'd ask who these guys are, but there isn't time! We have to find Steele fast! And this would be the case even if it weren't true that the only way to get rid of this infection he gave me would be to kill him!" Niju informed her. "Although I'm glad to see that the human has this way of getting us to where we'll need to go!"

"And given what he told Aleu about dad, I don't think there's any question of to where he's going!" Kodi stated, so he used his right forepaw to form the word: "Nome" in the snow, and Duke saw it, saying after hearing all of this barking from one dog to another: "Nome? That's where you need me to take the three of you?"

They all nodded as repeatedly and as fast as they could, and Duke said: "Okay, you two who were in here before both get back in and have this guy be on the top of the plane behind you so that he can grip you both good and tight and vice versa. We're going to Nome."

All three quickly obeyed Duke, and once it was certain that there was no way Aleu or Kodi would lose their grip on Niju, nor would Niju himself lose his grip on them, Duke took off and Niju's heart was pounding hard(so were the ones that belonged to Aleu and Kodi, but Niju's harder than either), since none of them knew if Niju's infection was catching or if they would make it to Nome in time, plus all of them knew what would happen if things happened the way that Steele wanted them to.

Thankfully, they all arrived at Nome before Steele had found Balto, and all three of them screamed in unison: "STEELE!" prompting the malamute to turn around and see, much to his surprise, not only Aleu and Niju, but Kodi and Duke, neither of whom he'd ever seen up until this moment, right in front of him.

Both wolves and the female one's sled dog brother jumped out of the areas in(or, in Niju's case, off of the area on)the plane they had previously occupied, and looked to Duke both to thank him and to let him know that they now had to deal with the matter of Steele, with what kind of movements they make with their heads making it clear on both counts.

Able to tell what they were try to tell him, Duke nodded and said: "Sure thing, guys. And good luck." and flew his plane to where he kept it when he wasn't delivering mail and/or giving rides to one or two individuals of this sort or that sort.

Just after he'd landed, with all four canines present hearing it, Steele told Niju: "So, you and Aleu managed to find some help and catch up with me, did you? And you brought company, too. Who the hell is that guy, anyway, might I ask?"

"Kodi, that's who!" Kodi told him. "And although neither Aleu nor Niju here had any time to tell me or my human friend, Duke, anything outside of what needed to be done to get back here where you were, I did find some things out from Aleu before we both got onto that plane, including who the fuck you were and what the hell you did, you motherfucker!"

"Well, then, Kodi," said Steele, "you therefore must know along with the other two that surely Niju will want to be the one to try and fucking stop me, since unless he kills me, he will be killed by his current infection, instead, even if it isn't a spreading one or catching, the way that I made sure it was unique and would effect only him, and the fact that he has caused what will turn everything perfect and I took a part of it in as so to get as much of it to be mine as possible despite how he didn't count on it or know about me until I attacked and infected him?"

Steele grinned maliciously at Niju and stated: "Why, that's all the more fucking reason for him to want to take me down, which he won't be able to unless he wins a fucking fight with me, and though he won't and indeed will die by my paws if the infection doesn't do him the fuck in first should he choose to fucking fight me and try to stop me while surviving, he is still more than welcome to try. So tell me, Niju, would you like to attempt to kill me in a one-on-one battle to undo all I've done and make sure I get no part of it at all?"

"Correction…I am going to succeed in killing you in a one-on-one battle that you will fucking lose along with your sorry life!" Niju snarled. "Believe otherwise if you fucking want, but your taking what you have of what the hell I fucking started and will fucking finish itself is not going to be anything but undone as much as your sorry ass is!"

Just then, Balto, Jenna, Saba, Dusty, Ralph, Kirby, Boris, Star, Stella, Dixie, Sylvie, Dingo, Nikki and Kaltag showed up, having decided to take a look about Nome together at this time, but then seeing and hearing what they saw to be Steele, Aleu, Niju and Kodi(though in some cases only one or more than one but not all were known)and ran the fuck up to where it was all occurring.

"KODI? ALEU? NIJU?!" Balto exclaimed. "STEELE?!" Jenna yelled. "Okay, will somebody please tell us all what the fuck is going on here?!" Saba barked.

"Wouldn't you like to fucking know?" Steele then said. "Of course, before infection boy here tries and fails to fucking kill me, I'll allow him and these two other losers to explain everything to you guys, Bingo here or otherwise! And hey, I see what look to be children of you and Jenna, Bingo, so I'm guessing the other two I speak of are, as well!"

"Yes, they are!" Balto told Steele. "And although when Aleu and I met up with Niju, it was a less than pleasant or good encounter, we can now see that he's changed a lot, and for the better, plus was still nowhere near as horrible as you at his worst! But what's this talk about him being infected, anyway?"

"Simple…the way that everything's turning into a worldwide utopia?" Steele gloated(so what else is new?). "Well, I was lucky enough to take in a bit of it and, learning what I did about Niju like everyone else alive at the time it happened did, which included soon thereafter victims of mine consisting of Nava and Aleu's wolf pack, I saw a way to take as much as I could for myself. And part of said way was, when I had the brief and only chance to do so, afflicting Niju here with a special infection that, while not contagious, will kill him unless he kills me first. And couple with that everything that's known about me, by him or otherwise, at this point, and you know that he wants me dead and deep down, admit it, so do all of you, even supposed pureheart angels like you, Jenna! Of course, Aleu and Kodi haven't made any secret of it, but why should any of you? But none of that matters, because Niju WILL die and I WILL get as much as I can from all of this, part of which includes you, Bingo, dying and you, Jenna, being my whipping bitch of a mate while I'm the fucking stepfather of your children, whether you lot like it or not!"

"NO!" every animal who wasn't Steele exploded in unison, though Niju loudest of all, and the latter told Steele: "We're fighting now without any further ado, motherfucker, and make no fucking mistake, my infection will die along with the one who created it and who is an infection on this whole world, all of our lives or otherwise! Both infections WILL die, and my thanks to you and Kodi, Aleu, for helping me along with Duke!"

After Kodi said: "No problem!" and Aleu said: "Get him, Niju!" that very same Niju braced himself and indeed got ready for anything Steele might or might not do.

"Correction…both infections will fucking do your pathetic ass the fuck in, thus causing you to die!" Steele laughed wickedly and indeed villainously, with both then going straight for each other.

And thus did their fight commence, with Niju drawing first blood via a nasty one-two clawing attack across Steele's face, one slash on each side of it, albeit with Steele doing a big downwards swipe of his own down Niju's face in retaliation, and, though no one, either one of them or otherwise, heard it at all, there was a song playing in the background during that fight.

In the back of my mind I can barely even remember when there was nothing left to hide but damage found its way inside.

Niju tried to kill Steele by biting him hard on the throat, but Steele twisted so that Niju's bite only got the left side of his neck, while also making sure said twist allowed him to do a backhand paw whack on Niju's right eye.

I became truly alone.

Niju screamed, and Steele cackled as he now had gotten himself the upper paw, having literally hit Niju where it hurts, and subsequently tackled Niju, attempting to rip out his throat with a giant bite, much like it had been vice versa before, but Niju did the first thing that he could think of, which was to slice his left forepaw's claws across Steele's nose.

Turning to my own hellhole.

Now it was Steele's turn to scream, and as he did so, Niju used his hindfeet to repeatedly rake Steele down his belly to inflict more damage, plus he pushed Steele off of him with all of his might, getting up immediately thereafter as Steele fell over onto his side.

Behind anger I did hide to escape what I felt inside.

But Steele wasn't finished yet, something he proved by, when Niju smacked him across the left eye with his right forepaw, using Steele's own trick against him, his yowling was ironically accompanied by how he thrusted himself up and bit Niju's back while also raking his claws down his opponent's sides, injuring him dreadfully.

Any change caused me to feel fright.

Despite Niju's own yowling now showing itself, he hit Steele in the right eye with his nose, causing Steele to howl at an ultra-high volume while reeling, leaving the door open for Niju to tackle Steele and strangle him, both of which he promptly did.

My foe here I just now can hear laughing at my demise.

Steele strangled Niju back, though, and also bit him on the muzzle as hard as he could, which was succeeded by how he smashed both of his forepaws onto the sides of Niju's skull and used his muzzle to bash the underside of Niju's own, and it went from bad to worse when Niju was not only now in a haze, but he felt his death hourglass kind of infection starting to catch up to him.

Now if I am to survive, the infection must die!

Niju would not give up, however, and especially when he'd come so far as this, so when he got himself out of his haze just in time to leap aside from Steele's attempt to pounce on him(the combo that Steele did on him just now caused him to stagger away about nine feet, much to the malamute's amusement, ironically, up until now), he took advantage of the opening he now suddenly had via biting his tail and pulling it with his jaws, both as hard as he could, in addition to pulling his claws down Steele's shoulder blades, central back and even his ass, again, with all his might, and this predictably caused Steele to yell out in his excruciated agony.

Murder the beast that's been eating me alive!

Niju further attacked when he spun around at the same time that Steele did and was able to whack the latter across the face with his tail before his foe could counterattack, along with his next action being to bite Steele's right ear, though Steele fought back by using his tail to make snow fly into Niju's eyes, subsequently spinning around, whacking Niju's face with his tail and doing a one-two kick onto him with his hindfeet, the second kick knocking Niju back onto his side, but Niju managed to get the snow out of his eyes while rolling aside from Steele's pounce attack, as well as push himself up, spit in Steele's face and go over to do a one-two kick of his own, knocking Steele over before Niju quickly bit Steele's left foreleg and clawed at what part of his chest he could reach.

The infection must die!

Steele bit Niju's shoulder hard, right before he tripped him over via using his right foreleg to smash against Niju's own, causing Niju to fall onto his back with the help of that and Steele's pushing him down, Steele following this by running up and clawing away at his belly and chest, but Niju fought back by pushing Steele up enough so that he could use both his forepaws and his hind paws to push Steele so hard that the latter would go sliding down the snow onto his side and thus be exposed to what Niju would do next, although Niju had some difficulty getting back up due to the pain from his new underside wounds.

Nothing left but a broken wolf, scared and alone on the whole.

Still, he was able to get over them and ignore the pain enough so that he was still capable of doing battle with Steele, as evidenced by how he ran up to Steele, clawed at his sides, bit the ear he hadn't bitten yet and did a two forepaw smack onto the sides of Steele's head, although Steele got up and did much the same to Niju before cutting him down the shoulder blades and the top half of his back.

So horribly demoralized.

Leaping onto that same back of Niju's after that, Steele pinned him down and bit his ears one at a time before chomping on the back of his neck and pulling his bottom muzzle up with both of his forepaws.

He seems destined to slowly die.

Niju, however, improvised and let out an earsplitting howl, causing Steele to suddenly lose his grip, and Niju wrenched himself free before biting Steele on the side of his belly, in addition to biting him on the side of his face and grabbing his nuts after he used the snow to slide close enough for him to do so, squeezing and twisting hard, which made an even louder howl from Steele ensue.

Then he becomes truly alone.

While Niju was also further injured when Steele whacked snow at him with backwards hits of his forepaws, which got snow all over his face and forced him to let go of his balls, leaving the door open for Steele to rake his claws across first the bridge of his nose and then the front of his face, plus slam him to the ground putting both of his forelegs and half of his bodyweight into it, he had still done enough damage to Steele via the genital attack so that it wasn't sufficient to put him out of the fight, something Niju proved by using his own forelegs to first slam Steele into the ground even harder and then make him slide across the ground even harder than had been made to happen before, and Niju also was quite lucky in that Steele hit a wall that just happened to be in front of where he was sliding after Niju's attack.

Turning into his own hellhole.

Niju ran up to Steele and pushed his face into the ground hard with a stomp of his right forepaw, although Steele wasn't going down that easily, which he made clear when he tripped Niju with his hindlegs, which made contact with Niju's own, making him fall to the ground, which ensued with them both grappling and wrestling with each other, each one, despite fighting with the intent to kill from the get-go, now more hellbent on killing the other than ever, which both of them showed when their grappling and wrestling dealt a severe amount of damage to each one just as much as the other.

Behind anger he did hide to escape what he felt inside.

After a time of this tussling, Niju suddenly felt himself harmed by Steele's inflicted infection even worse, and indeed it was more painful and weakening than it had been before, which Steele naturally took advantage of by pinning Niju to the ground and stomping first on his chest, then on his throat and finally between his eyes with his right forepaw while making sure he stayed pinned with the other.

Any change makes him feel much fright.

Knowing that he had to do something now unless he wanted to be done for and lose the most important fight of his life along with his life itself, Niju did the only thing that could possibly stand a chance of helping him...he swung his right foreleg to nail Steele in his left one, proving fortunate enough to make contact and cause Steele to be taken by surprise/caught off guard, lose balance and, of course, fall over, not to mention that he was able to muster up enough strength to sit up, jump back onto his feet after pushing himself up good and hard and cut Steele across the face and up the bridge of his nose, only for Steele to counter it by jumping over Niju and then pulling him backwards down to the ground with him.

His foe here he can just now hear laughing at his demise!

Unhappily, it also went from bad to worse thanks to how Steele wrapped himself around Niju as so to embrace him in a crushing, vise-like grip, clearly intending to literally crush the life out of him, though Niju, fortunately, was able to slice Steele down the outer sides of his forelegs, causing his nemesis to let go of him and screech in the sudden pain he felt, along with, after he now got the chance to do so, jumping out of his reach just enough to smash Steele's nose with his own after he turned around to face him.

Now if I am to survive, the infection must die!

He subsequently jumped onto Steele, pinned him down and stomped on the top of his head repeatedly after standing back up using his right forepaw, plus jumped multiple times onto the top of Steele's head and his back, as well as his upper sides, giving him the advantage despite how Steele had seconds ago had the advantage.

Murder the beast that's been eating me alive!

Niju then wrapped his right foreleg under Steele's throat and squeezed by pulling it in, along with using his left forepaw to push Steele's head down with everything he had being put into it, and he sat down onto Steele's back instantly afterwards to come even closer to immobilizing him and adding to the damage he was dishing out to the now ostensibly trapped and helpless Steele.

The infection must die!

Niju's next of actions was to bend his head downwards so that he could put further pressure and weight onto Steele, followed by biting off as much of Steele's nose as possible, although the latter was, much to Niju's surprise, also able to bite off part of Niju's nose, though not as much as Niju had bitten off his, and Steele made his next of moves, something that Niju didn't count on, since he believed himself to have gotten Steele completely incapacitated and utterly at his mercy with no way out whatsoever for his enemy(well, up until now when he found out that was not so the hard way, anyway).

Come on, motherfucker!

That next of moves was to headbutt Niju in the nose with the back of his head and cause him to fall down onto his back, exposing his cock and balls, which Steele promptly bit down on, and that, but of course, made a scream that could be heard from ten feet away come out of Niju, but he repeatedly kicked Steele on the shoulders with his hindfeet, one hindpaw on each shoulder, in addition to how, once Steele's mouth was no longer connecting to his gear, he clapped both of his back feet onto the sides of Steele's skull and further kicked him by landing loads of kicks into Steele's face.

Now if I am to survive(If I am to survive!), the infection must die!

Steele once more fell over on his back and Niju, despite the horrible pain he was in now having been increased, could and did make himself get up with some effort, and seeing Steele's equipment right there, he leapt forward before Steele could do a thing thanks to how hard he'd hit the ground on his back, seeing Steele gotten by his own attack when he sunk his teeth deep into Steele's prick and orbs, Steele's caterwauling from the pain being even louder and carrying even further than Niju's had when he was on the business end of this attack(and that is really saying something, to be sure).

Murder the beast(Murder the beast!) that's been eating me alive!

Even so, Steele was able to use his hindpaws to rake down Niju's lower neck, and despite how the wounds weren't ones that would prove fatal, they were enough to dislodge Niju's teeth from his groin, to say nothing of how the hell Steele, even if with a noticeable amount of effort, got himself back up onto his feet and jumped towards Niju's tail, biting down on it and pulling it hard, much like Niju had done to him before, even though Niju got him with loads of snow by using his back feet to kick it into his face following his yelp and yowl from Steele's maw yanking his tail like that.

The infection must die!

He was quick to jump back despite the considerable/substantial amount of excruciating pain he was in at this moment, and used the back of his head to nail Steele in the nose, right before he jumped aside and hit Steele in the eye with his own nose, succeeding this attack by spinning around and slicing his claws right across that and Steele's other eye, making the malamute cry out in pain that was even more horrific than that which Niju was in, which is saying a lot, and he was in that kind of agony in general, too..

This is where I draw the line(Where I draw the line!)!

Furious as hell, Steele, well, furiously pounced onto Niju and they wrestled and grappled in a way that made them roll, crash and flip about the ground until, after a while of it, Steele was able to whack Niju across the eyes, though not claw him like he meant to and like Niju did to him, since Niju saw it coming just in time to jump back as much as he could, in addition to stomping on Steele's ribcage, sternum and, as a result, his heart with as much force as possible with his front paws.

This infection must die(This infection must die!)!

Leaping back even further than that on the spot once he'd done this, Niju pounced on Steele as the sled dog did everything he could to thrust himself back up and pulled back his head by grabbing his scalp and squeezing hard to do said pulling, leaving the door open for him to do what he did next, which was to nail Steele in the throat with a hard smash of his right forepaw.

I want to be released from this demon of mine(Demon of mine!)!

All but defeated, Steele still wouldn't yield, something that he made only too obvious to his wolf opponent when he turned himself around enough to try and knock Niju off balance and also be successful at biting his thigh, clearing meaning to penetrate his femoral artery, but Niju managed to maintain balance and bite Steele in the thigh back with just as much force, and the wolf was only too aware both from what he had learned before and how he felt internally alongside how much his entire body hurt like hell, that he was, by this point, either in his final moments or about to edge out the one who would otherwise be his killer.

The infection must die!

Happily, the former was not to be the case at all, as evidenced by how Niju now raked his teeth down Steele's thigh to come as close to hitting his femoral artery as he possibly could and in the process forcing Steele's mouth off of his own thigh, and when both stood back up, proving able to do so very barely, Niju was quite capable of seeing that he either delivered the killing blow now or took the killing blow from Steele, and as such, he put what little he still had left into leaping forward right at Steele and using the claws on his right forepaw, which he had now focused all of his remaining power into once he'd done the speedy, long jump to allow him to slice Steele in half, his body and the length and weight thereof adding the force that would make him go right through Steele's damaged nose and out his wounded tail, and just as Niju landed on his feet, struggling to keep standing, Steele's two halves fell to the ground to opposite sides, causing him to die instantly and Niju to have marginally/narrowly come out on top and indeed prove triumphant by a hair.

The infection must die!

Niju felt like he was, at best, going to drop from exhaustion and pass out, and, at worst, fall down and die, but much to his surprise, neither of those things happened...rather, he felt the infection that Steele had, well, infected him with fade away, and after that, he saw Aleu and Balto come on over to help hold him steady just in case he otherwise would have collapsed, and such being the case was very likely, indeed, so they were very prompt about that.

"It's okay, Niju. Relax now. Calm down. It's over." Aleu told him in an assuring, comforting tone of voice. "You did it. You ended Steele's menace. That and the infection he gave you are gone along with the bastard son of a bitch asshole motherfucker himself."

"Really? This isn't a fucking hallucination? I saved us all and I'm not infected anymore?" Niju asked, needing to be fully sure that this was reality.

"Believe us, it's no hallucination. It's absolute reality." Balto informed him. "Well done, Niju. You set everything right in every way, and you are now one of us, just as you wanted to be."

"G-g-g-good." Niju replied, coughing a bit from how worn down and almost unconscious he was. "Just needed to make sure…I'll be able to celebrate this a lot better, and feel a lot better, once these wounds and all of the other damage I got dealt by Steele are all fixed."

"And they will be. In the meantime, you can rest as everyone else fills everyone who is in the dark about one or more things, well, in, and along with you being given what information you need to know, our celebration will still be able to be felt, heard and seen by you, and we'll make sure that as much of it makes its way towards yours as possible, with plenty else of it for you and us alike in the future." Jenna let him know.

"Thanks for making things clear…" Niju said. "I only wish I was seeing something other than a blur that I can barely tell is you guys, and that I still had enough strength to stand without a chance of falling over. But I guess there are things that you can't do shit about, huh?"

"Yes, but this was a worthwhile cause that ended you up in that sort of thing." Saba told him. "It'll only go uphill from here…for all of us. For everything. Literally. Steele will not destroy what you worked so hard to create, and neither will anyone or anything else."

"Well, if nothing else, that sounds a lot better than I'm feeling right now, so it ought to help to some extent." Niju said. "By the way, the infection Steele gave me that is thankfully now gone didn't spread or anything, did it? He said it wouldn't, but he's a pretty blatantly lie prone sort of guy, or at least he was before I fucking killed him."

"Absolutely not." Kodi told him. "The instant that you made it nonexistent, you eliminated any chances at all that it would even begin to go anywhere to anyone or anything. I admit that all of us, Aleu and myself or otherwise, weren't absolutely certain it wouldn't spread or prove contagious or anything similar until now for exactly the same reasons as you weren't fully sure, despite keeping that feeling to ourselves, and even if it could spread, it would have done so easily by now and you erased it completely. We can all tell the former fact along with knowing the latter fact."

"E-e-e-e-excellent. That accounts for everything, so I can finally either lie on my stomach while conscious or pass out." Niju nodded. "Whatever happens, though, I'll admit my entire body hurts like hell, at least currently, anyway, but all things considered, it was worth it."

A while latter, the severely injured Niju, who'd been brought to the house in which Jenna lived to rest and recuperate with help from the canines who were helping him stand before that, at last was feeling a little bit better and could tell, especially since he saw that, during the time he could barely keep his eyes the least bit open, his wounds had been treated and he'd been bandaged up, that he might actually get back to normal faster than he thought he was going to.

Additionally, just as he'd been told, as much of the celebration of what had happened and what had meant, and was also done in his honor, was made to go his way as possible, given that was the most that could happen concerning all of that currently, and as for the very dead Steele?

Why, where the ones who had been saved from the deadly, evil, scary threat that he posed by Niju and Niju himself were starting off what was to be an everlasting utopia of a future that would make itself known around the entire world/planet, and where the innocent wolves who he killed were enjoying the beautiful utopia in the sky known as heaven, he was being put through hell in the underground dystopia which was, you guessed it, HELL!

Indeed, everything was what it needed to be on every count, present time and futuristically, and Niju was now to be considered the hero of the century, something that he soaked up both before and after he was back to normal like a sponge soaks up water.

Furthermore, a few weeks after he'd gotten back to normal, wounds gone and everything, he was approached by Aleu, and saw the perfect chance to tell her what he did just now.

"Aleu?" Niju asked. "Oh, hi there, Niju!" Aleu said. "You wanted to ask me something just now?"

"Yes." Niju told her. "For a time now, I've had these feelings about you…these feelings of love…the hots for you, as well…and although I've done everything I can to ignore and deny them up until this point, I now realize that I can't do either of those things. I've…I've fallen for you, Aleu. So many things have caused it to happen, most likely the gripping thing and how it opened my eyes to yet another thing that could have been, given the first time I met you, its being unfavorable as hell notwithstanding."

"Well, Niju, you're in luck," Aleu informed him, "because said feelings are reciprocated. I, too, have, for a little bit, been starting to fall in love with you, as well, and, like you, I also did all I could to act like those feelings were nonexistent. Suppress the idea that they could possibly exist. Now I see how impossible that is, especially since it was a great many things about you that made me develop these feelings for you. Similar shit as the gripping and memory thing and what realization and idea it contained you told me about most likely was what caused all of that for me, too."

"I am glad that you told me so the first chance you got, since that chance was just now, and I knew that I would either tell you the moment I saw you again, which, again, was just now, or blow it by not telling you at all, or at least think I blew it, given what I just learned from you." Niju said. "Either way, though, I am glad I made the smarter move, and you did as far as your love towards me was concerned, as well."

Aleu nodded and then said: "Thank you. Hey, I'll tell you what. How about you and I sleep together in the same bed tonight? I'll urge my owner to allow it and there's no way she'll say no, especially given who it is I want to be with."

"Sounds like a plan." Niju replied, and he smiled along with Aleu, both of them licking each other and also nuzzling one another immediately thereafter, and they knew that they both had a future like no other to look forward to not just in general, but now as far as their personal circle was concerned, too.

THE END

How did you like it? Ratings and reviews, please, especially if you are an Aleu X Niju fan, which, as you've learned from my previous Balto fanfics, I am, of course.