The wolf, if it could even be called that, was drawing in heavy and pained breaths and Veronica didn't know how to help it. She didn't know if she could. Nor if she should. She could sense fear and confusion on the half-human, half-alien creature and she wondered if that made the wolf more or less dangerous. It shuddered and so did Veronica. It took a great deal of mental effort, but she slowly reached out and stroked the wolf's blue fur. Until then, the only space wolf she'd ever seen was Keith's. That wolf had scared her and it was a true space wolf. This thing…what was it exactly? Some kind of werewolf from outerspace? For what it was worth they hybrid creature was beautiful; with a toned and towering stature accented by an opalescent deep blue pelt. She could swear that electric blue sparks flashed over the creature's fur every now and again. Truly she'd never seen anything like it, not even in those old horror flicks her friends used to binge with her. The animal snarled and she jolted back. As alluring as the beast was, it was frightening. It's fangs, now exposed, were astoundingly large. It's maw powerful and threatening. She could detect fury in those eyes. Fury and something else, something almost familiar—that something only made the ordeal that much more uncanny. She was at a loss, if the creature attacked her, she would have no means of fighting back. She hadn't brought any weapons, but then, she hadn't expected a wolf to enter the compound. She could make a run for it, a mad dash to the artillery room, but the wolf remained on its side of the room, growling and whimpering to itself.
It was in pain, Veronica realized. Yet she couldn't see any cause for its ailing. It didn't look wounded, but God, it sounded tormented. A series of grotesque pops and cracks had the creature writhing and thrashing on the floor.
The sight of it was both heart wrenching and horrifying all at once.
And the agonized wolf let out a cry. The sort Veronica knew would follow her into her sleeping hours for the next few months. It was a demented blend of a scream and a howl. A wolf's voice with an undertone of something more or less human. Veronica cupped her hands over her ears and waited for the noise to pass.
She wanted to approach the wolf again, but the rational side of her took hold. For all of the sympathy she had, that creature was dangerous and she couldn't see it doing anything but snapping its jaws at her wrists.
But its eyes, oh lord, its eyes. There was something in them. So deeply frightened. Something tortured, something that begged for mercy.
Veronica couldn't offer any.
.oOo.
Transforming back is infinitely more painful than the initial turning, perhaps that is why most chose not to do it at all. The beast clawed and tore its way to the surface as it did every full moon, and she was hapless to stop it.
She thought that it would be easier on Earth, being as she was so far from the Galra moons. But Earth's moon? It was different, somehow more powerful. Earth's moon was closer to the planet than Galra's moon was to it. Its pull was harsher, irresistible. At least with her planet's moon she had built a tolerance and could resist at least long enough to put herself somewhere where she couldn't harm nor be harmed.
Things in her mind were fuzzy, she couldn't remember if she had done any damage. All she could remember was an unrelenting pain, one that was growing worse and worser still. Claws dug into her skin as she cupped them over her head. She could feel her muscles contract and strain as they began reshaping themselves. She cried out again and then once more at the ripping sensation that the first one had caused her. She couldn't be sure but she thought that she might have been bleeding, perhaps from where claws raked into skin. Claws that were retracting as though she were grinding them down on stone. Each inch lost sent an unpleasant ripple through her body. She did know, however, that she was crying. Rather hard at that, the sound of it was still caught between that of a wolf's and her own. Just as the mouth uttering the cry was. She tried to pull herself into a sitting position, or at least an laying one that was more comfortable, but she still lacked control over her muscles. In fact, they seemed to be fighting her every step of the way.
In another series of cracks, she knows that her bones are snapping back to their original, much smaller build. She was only dully aware of the woman standing across the room. She couldn't quite focus on the face, she couldn't really focus on any one thing. The sensation of an intense shoving pressure has her longing for release of any kind, even if it came from death. She just wanted an exit at that point. And a ringing filled her ears, it reaped her heightened sense of hearing and made the situation that much more disorienting. Sounds seemed to blend; the sound of her own heartbeat, the woman's breathing from across the room, a metallic clatter from down the hall. And then they were overpowered by and muffled beneath the ringing until all that was left was the pounding of her heart. It was beating at a rate that had to be dangerous.
She was growing dizzy. She tried to dwell on it, to force herself into a sleep state.
A painless state.
She welcomed the wooziness that was claiming her vision.
.oOo.
In a series of a few final twitching spasms, the Galra lay unmoving.
Faint traces of fur still lingered on her hands, but in minutes those patches were gone too. And she recognized the face. How could she not? It was the face of her lover. Veronica was still shaking from the spectacle, one that she was sure that she wasn't supposed to have seen, but she took Acxa into her arms regardless and carried her to bed. Pulling the blanket over her shoulder, she wondered how she hadn't recognized her sooner. She should have known, she should have sensed it.
She left the room only for a second to fetch a towel and some bandaids. She dabbed at the self-inflicted claw marks on her hairline. She figured it would be better to do so when the woman couldn't feel the sting of doing so. Carefully, she put the bandaids over the marks.
She remained at the foot of the bed until the Galra finally stirred again. And when she did, she couldn't seem to face Veronica. In fact, she made a point of avoiding eye contact and Veronica wondered if she was ashamed to have been seen in such a state.
Veronica took her hand. She seemed so distraught. Distraught and flustered. "It's alright." Veronica muttered. "I'm not judging. Trust me, back in school I was that weird dorky kid that everyone liked to make jabs at." She gave Acxa a lopsided smile.
Acxa still didn't face her.
"Hey, come on now, don't do that." Veronica said softly, brushing a sweep of hair from Acxa's face only to reveal another set of angry claw marks. How had she missed those?
"You were afraid of me." She whispered.
And Veronica was now the one feeling ashamed and guilty because she couldn't dispute it. "It's nothing you did. I'm actually afraid of Earth wolves too. Wolves and foxes and coyotes…anything with fur that can eat me. Of course, scaled things that can eat me are horrifying too." She hoped that her rambling made it clear that she meant no harm. "Not that I thought you would eat me."
Acxa's frown deepened. "That's only because I was already turning back, do you know what could have happened if…" She trailed off, perhaps think back to a past experience. She bit her cheek—to Veronica's relief, with teeth that had less edge—"I can't control it. I tried but, this time…" She looked up at Veronica almost desperately. "I didn't hurt anyone, did I?"
Veronica inspected her once more. "I mean I only see your blood, so that's probably a good sign, right?"
Acxa nodded.
"There weren't many people here anyways. Everyone wanted to explore Earth a little. I decided to stay in and get a little reading done. So that's good, right? No one else saw anything."
The relief was plain on Acxa's face, her eyes were so soft and gentle. It was terribly hard for her to imagine the Galara tearing someone to shreds.
"How did this happen to you, anyways? If you don't talking about it." Veronica's curiosity finally got the best of her. "How'd you become a space werewolf?"
Acxa was quite for a very long moment, "Zethrid."
"Zethrid?"
"She was born half-Galra, half-space wolf. Something like that, anyhow." Acxa paused. "She didn't talk much about it." She toyed awkwardly with her bangs. "It's not a comfortable thing for anyone to disclose, I don't blame her for not telling me…"
"So you found out the hard way?" Veronica asked.
Acxa nodded. "I don't really remember much about it, I just remember being pounced and looking into the wolf's eyes and seeing Zethrid. And then waking up with the bite marks. I knew it was her, it had to be. She wouldn't talk to me for months afterwards, and that's the only reason I can think of for it."
"I'm sorry." Veronica replied.
Acxa shrugged, "I don't think she meant it." Her expression grew distant. "There's more instinct and less control and it only gets worse the closer to the moon—any of them—you are. Lotor's path had us right in front of the Galra moon when it was full. I'm lucky I'm alive to be a werespace-wolf." Veronica could see her absently flexing her fingers. "She tried to get him to stall for the night, but he wouldn't do it without reason and she wouldn't give him one. They're both stubborn." Veronica watched her try to get comfortable against the pillow, and wince as she pulled an already strained muscle.
"Back massage?" Veronica offered with a warm smile.
Acxa smiled wearily and rolled onto her stomach.
"Where does it hurt the most?"
"Between my shoulder blades." Acxa answered.
Veronica began her first attempt to work the knots out of Acxa's muscles. The poor woman was so tense. Veronica pressed her lips together in concentration. The longer she worked, the more relaxed the Galra seemed. Her breathing was growing more level, less forced.
"There's got to be a way to undo it." She broke the silence.
"It's in my blood, Veronica. You can't cure it you can only cope."
Veronica found it hard to fathom that, with all of their technological advancements and quintessence, that they couldn't split the wolf from the Galra.
"The closest I came to freedom was Haggar."
"Haggar?" Veronica asked. "Let me guess, a spooky, space vampire?"
Acxa rolled her eyes, "space witch, actually." The humor left her eyes as fast as it had come. "She learned to work with quintessence, she can do magic, I guess. I was hoping that she could use it to get rid of the space wolf blood."
"But she couldn't?" Veronica asked.
"She wouldn't."
Veronica nodded.
"You're pretty calm for just having seen a werespace-wolf transformation."
Veronica shrugged, "eh, I'm about to head into outer space with you and Lance. I'm bound to see weird things eventually, I've kind of prepared myself. I'm glad my first bizarre experience was with a friend and not some creepy space witch."
.oOo.
It was strange to have Veronica accept her predicament so readily. Ezor certainly hadn't. Yet Veronica, even hours later, was still laying next to her and sleeping quite soundly for someone in such close proximity to a were. The woman rolled over and sleepily wrapped her arms around Acxa. She had a faint feeling that Veronica viewed her as more of a large puppy than a wolf. Whether that was offensive or reassuring, Acxa couldn't decide. She supposed that she would rather have that, than another horrified face gawking at her. She ran her fingers through Veronica's hair, happy to have them instead of vicious claws.
It was comforting to have her so close, especially with fresh moon rays spilling in through the window. Taking care not to disturb Veronica she got up from the bed and drew the curtains closed. The waning gibbous resembled the full moon much too closely for comfort. But at the same time, the gibbous reassured her that she had a month's worth of time to work out a solution.
She peered at Veronica.
This time she would find one.