Disclaimer: I claim neither Bloody Roar's properties nor any characters that were not created by me; I make no profit from the writing of this story.

Warning: Mild violence and sexual material

Chapter 8: Another Side

Life Through the Eyes of an Enemy

The man woke up in a cold sweat. It was the same nightmare. The one he'd been having for years now. Every night, he would have a peaceful dream where he was at home with his family, then, out of nowhere, every burst into flames and in the middle of it all stood a Zoanthrope. The Zoanthrope clawed and tore at his wife as she screamed, but the man could do nothing.

If only it had been a nightmare and not a reality.

The sequence that repeated in his head happened four years ago, and it had been repeating in his head ever since.

The man looked to the woman still sleeping in his bed. She was the epitome of beauty, her silky blonde hair slowing down to her mid-back. Her blue eyes were the same color as the sky and her form was nothing less than perfect. She was truly the meaning of the word 'beauty' to any man, but to the man who sat awake next to her, she was just another thing to keep himself distracted from his life of loneliness.

The man got up and went to get on his clothes, the scent of the woman's perfume still poignant on his body, and while he was dressing, the woman woke and was able to make out the figure of the man getting dressed despite the dull light from the rising sun. His blonde, buzzed hair still visible, despite the poor seeing conditions.

"Frank? Where are you going?" Even the woman's voice was perfect. To the normal man, she was a goddess and the man would jump at the opportunity to be able to say that she was his girlfriend, but Frank already had a full plate and couldn't even begin to handle being in a committed relationship.

"Uh…I-" Frank was cut off by the sound of his cell phone ringing in his back pocket. It was almost perfect timing. Frank looked at the text message and grimaced, then looked back at the woman, "I have to go to work. The King is sending my platoon on a search and destroy mission to eliminate any resilient Zoathropes and bring the ones that comply back to the castle."

"Oh. Alright." The woman's voice was filled with disappointment. She thought she had finally found a man who she could have a suitable relationship with, but it seemed that he was the same as any other man.

"Look, Jessica, you're a great person, and I know you're going to make some man very happy someday. But I don't think that with my job, we could have a committed relationship." Frank said, trying to be as sincere as possible as he buttoned the top button his shirt. He got up and quickly put on his jeans and fumbled in his pocket to see if his wedding ring was still in the back pocket. He didn't wear it, but he liked to have it with him at all times so he wouldn't forget his wife.

Jessica looked out the window at the rising sun as Frank left the room. She was used to this kind of heartbreak, but every time, it still hurt on the inside.

Frank walked into the Anti-Zoanthrope Unit and looked around at the men running around like chickens with their heads cut off.

"Parrett." The booming voice broke into Frank's thoughts as Frank nearly jumped. When Frank turned around, he stood face to face with his good friend. To the masses he was known as the Wolverine, but to Frank, he was known as Lance.

Lance was a hulking man with jet black hair and blue eyes. He had cuts ad scars all over his body from the years of service to the AZU. Lance and Frank were both Sergeants in the AZU, but Frank was less violent, according to his reputation, as Lance had a tendency to blow a fuse easily.

Both Lance and Frank had been called in because there had been rumors that a small group of renegade Zoanthropes were coming to find out if the experiments were just rumors and they were willing to do what's necessary to obtain their goals.

Parrett and Lance had their usual conversations while they adorned their camouflage armor. Even though the new Kingdom was advanced decades beyond normal society, the government still insisted on using the same type of armor used by the outside world.

"You hear what's been happening recently? Three Zoanthropes have running rough shot through the kingdom, goin' crazy, takin' everything out." Lance bluntly stated, adding his trademark smirk to the end of his web of rumors.

"That's it? That's all Orion's told us?" Frank answered, doubtful of his king actually telling the whole truth. Despite being in the military, he had his doubts and accusations of his own government.

"Aren't we in a bad mood." Lance fired back. Lance had a tendency to be incredibly facetious, and it showed.

"Look, Orion has a tendency to not tell the whole truth, alright? I just wanna know what the higher ups know." Frank said disdainfully.

"Well, it's been rumored that two of them are former military personel, and the third is supposedly some sort of Demon-thing."

Instantly, Frank's mind flashed back to the day that his wife was slaughtered and the figure of a tiger standing in the flames.

"You alright there, Frankie?" Lance asked. Concern and impatience formed the figure of Lance's face.

"Yeah…yeah, I'm fine." Frank was lying through his teeth. It was something he had tried not to do, but sometimes, he had to.

"Good. This army needs that brain of yours." Lance chuckled, patted Frank on the back, put his helmet on, grabbed his gun and left Frank to his own revelry.

[u]Hours Later[/u]

Frank and Lance hopped out of the humvee that their platoon was traveling in and set up camp. The men began to tell war stories, either of actual war or sexual conquests. Each man knew his limits, but they knew what Frank had been doing the last couple of days and each one wanted to hear the story, but Frank was too distracted by revenge and the memories of his wife.

"Frank. Snap the Hell out of it." Lance's booming voice again broke into Frank's mind as he looked around the campfire at the men. They could hide it well, but each of them was eager to hear of Frank's 'fling' with what each of the men considered a goddess.

"What? What happened?" Frank quickly stated, not in the least bit aware of what had been happening.

"You're turn. We're all a little bit anxious to hear about how She is in the sack." Lance replied, his smile was like a child who had just learned how to say a dirty word.

"Well, it w-" Frank was cut off by the sound of voices in the distance.

"Look, I don't care what you think, these test subjects are being forcibly tested upon." The first man's voiced seemed young, but aged at the same time.

"I'm pretty sure that they aren't." The second man to speak had a much more hardened voice. The voice seemed familiar in frank's mind.

"Look, the young 'un here was a test subject. He can be the swing vote." The first man replied.

"Well, yeah, they are being forcibly tested on-" The third man stated, but was cut off by the first man.

"What did I tell ya." The first man's voiced was stuffed with confidence in his victory of the debate.

"Well, if you would let me finish, Let, I would've said that some of the subjects are volunteers from the army." The third man quickly stated.

"Well, how do you like them apples." The second man said. His voice was now full of confidence as well.

"Oh, please, the majority is forced testing." The first man replied. Frank had interpreted as a stubborn man with an undeterred drive.

"Look, I was the one in the labs, I wou-" The third man was cut off by Lance's voice booming out in the darkness.

"Halt! All three of you! Stop where you are!" Lance stood and aimed his gun at the three Zoanthropes as the rest of the platoon did the same.

"Oh, goodie. More toys for me to break." The first man said, an underlying tone of sadism was evident in his voice.

Lance lowered his gun as he realized who the man who has just spoken was, "Actually, this might've been more then I can chew, ain't that right, sir?"

Frank looked around, expecting to see someone of a higher rank then Lance, but saw no one but the platoon and had no idea who Lance was talking to.

"Look, kid, I don't have time for your games. I'm not a part of the military, and I'd rather not be associated with you mindless dogs." The first man replied, little patience was left in him and it sounded as if he was ready to take out the entire platoon if one more remark was made.

"Actually, I think I'll spear head this one." The second one chimed in, much to the shock of the first man. There was very little light, but the emotion was assumed by everyone.

The eyes of the second man were shining a blood red light as he looked at the soldiers. The instant the eyes of the Zoanthrope and Frank hit, he knew exactly who he was dealing with.

"I think we can settle this in a civilized manner, boys. Now, what is it that you want of us?" The second man replied, his voice leveled despite the scores of soldiers aiming for his head.

"I want you to give me my wife back." Was all that Frank said before he fired an entire clip at the Zoanthrope.

After the bursts of the bullets from the barrel of Frank's M-92 had echoed one last time in the night, Lance ordered the spotlight on the back of the humvee to be turned on and pointed at the men.

What the soldiers saw shook them to the core.

The man who had been the target of Frank's unrelenting assault was riddled with bullet holes, but there was no blood. Frank confirmed that this was the man who had killed his wife and began to reload as fast as he could to end the Zoanthrope's life and avenge his family.

Before Frank could even begin to reload, though, he felt a hand grip his throat with the strength of a vice as the arm lifted Frank into the air, "So, this is gonna be about your wife and kids, huh?" The man chuckled as he threw Frank to the ground. Lance ordered the men to stand back, but the spotlight turned to the man as he began to pull the bullets out of his body, one by one, seemingly unharmed by the assault.

"Now, if you want true vengeance, you should at least try to kill me while I'm in my Zoanthrope form." The man began to channel a huge amount of energy as the light flickered and eventually went out.

While the men were trying to fix the light, a pair of blood-red eyes shone in the darkness and were staring directly at Frank…