Warning: Mild sexual content


About an hour later, Rachel was exhausted, sluggishly trudging behind the group as they clambered up a mass of bushy terrain with a higher elevation than the terrain they already crossed. She could feel the sweat dripping off her face, as well as the dull pain from her aching legs.

"Please… Let me rest…" she said with a deep sigh, halting halfway up the hill and attempting to breathe in more of the fresh, lukewarm air. "I don't think I can continue like this any longer…"

The group stopped, looking back at Rachel so she wasn't left behind. Leon soon began to walk back over to her.

"I guess you can rest." he replied, stopping beside her. "Although, try to rest quickly. We need to get as far as we can before night."

Without a response, Rachel simply moved over to a small clearing and lay down on her back against the rough earth beneath her.

"…Um, you are going to just lay down there?" Leon asked, gazing down at her.

"Yea… it's comfortable…" she replied, slightly looking at him. "And it's not like there is any other place that is better to lie down on…"

Leon sighed, slowly walking over to where Rachel was and lying down beside her as well.

After he lay, Rachel could hear nearby footsteps crunching through the earth somewhere behind her. She assumed it was the rest of the group moving back over to them.

"While you two are resting, we are going to hunt." one of the warriors spoke.

After hearing the sounds of the warriors walking away, she soon noticed Kelnka's voice behind her.

"And I'm going to attempt to find a water source to build a shelter next to." he said with a slightly annoyed tone. "It's not very close to nightfall now. Anyway, try not to move. Although if you do, make sure to take the healers with you."

Once he walked away, Rachel turned her gaze toward Leon. "And why does he think that we would want to move?" she said with a slight smile.

"Well, we might want to move sometime soon." he replied, gazing over at her as well.

"I don't know why… I'm still really tired. I'm not gonna be getting up from this spot for a while."

"I'm sure that if you had a bit more exercise you would be able to last longer without tiring. You just need to go out on a few more missions."

"Maybe, but I don't know. We'll just have to see I guess." she said with a slight grin. "For now, I think I'm gonna take a nap before I have to move again." Without waiting for a response from Leon, she simply closed her eyes and began attempting to sleep.

After about ten more minutes of lying on the ground, Rachel's relaxation was interrupted after hearing Leon getting up beside her. She opened her eyes and sleepily looked up at him. After opening her eyes, she instantly noticed that the light from the sun was dimmer than before. "Where are you going?" she asked.

"Well if you had been paying attention, Kelnka returned to tell us that he finished building the shelter." Leon replied. "Also, a rainstorm is approaching and I don't think we want to stay out here and get rained on."

"Ugh, how long did I sleep?" she asked, slowly standing back up. She began to feel a few light drops of tepid rain sprinkle against her skin.

"Only ten minutes. Anyway, we should be getting to the shelter before we get rained on."

Rachel began to follow alongside Leon after he began to walk up the hill. After reaching the top, they reentered the brush-covered forest once again. She could hear the sounds of the rain sprinkling against the leaves, as well as the eerie noise from a few gusts of wind as the storm's strength continued to increase. Every few seconds she could feel the drops of rain drip on her skin that managed to slip through the dense canopy of the forest.

"…Where did those wolves go?" she asked, looking over at Leon as they walked.

"They are somewhere ahead of us at the shelter." he replied. "Kelnka told me the directions before he went back there. By the way, I almost forgot to tell you that he mentioned the warriors not returning yet. So we won't be getting anything to eat for now, unless we can find some fruit nearby."

"I wonder what's taking them so long… It shouldn't take very long to kill something and bring it back."

"Well maybe they are just having troubles with finding something. They will probably be back soon."

"I hope so… I only got to eat that bowl of fruits today." After pausing for a few seconds, she soon spoke once again. "By the way, how did night come so quickly? The daytime only felt like it lasted a few hours long."

"Here, it doesn't take very long for the planet to rotate, so it shortens the length of the daytime. You'll get used to it eventually."

"I guess that means it's gonna take a while to get to the mountains…" she muttered. "Especially if we only walked for about an hour already…"

"Well, it was already close to sunset when we started walking. You were unconscious earlier for almost the entire day…"

"Oh, I almost forgot about that… So that means we'll be able to travel a lot farther tomorrow I guess."

"Only if you don't complain about walking and decide to rest like you did earlier." he said with a smirk.

"I'll try to walk farther than today, but I'm not gonna make any promises… I can't walk as far as you and those wolves can."

"Well if you get tired next time maybe someone will have to carry you." he replied, laughing slightly.

"Maybe so." she said, laughing as well in response.

Right after saying this, the wind began to grow stronger as it blew through the forest, and the sprinkling of the rain hit the trees harder and faster. Rachel quickly reached toward a short, tree-like plant, plucking off one of its large leaves and holding it over her head as they continued on to the shelter.

"We need to get to that shelter fast…" she said, looking at Leon, beginning to walk at a faster pace. "I hate getting rained on…"

Eventually the two came across a somewhat large, poorly-made shelter built from tree limbs, twigs, vines, and leaves. Beside it was a small lake, seeming to be dark and murky due to the fact that it was now nighttime. Rachel quickly threw the leaf aside and bolted inside the structure. She first noticed that Kelnka and the two healers were already inside, appearing to be asleep, curled up in random places inside the shelter on the ground that was padded with leaves. Also after she entered, she noticed drops of rain leaking through the roof.

She turned her gaze over to Leon after hearing him walk inside, noticing that he seemed to be almost soaking wet. "…You know, being a canine and all, please tell me you don't stink after getting wet…" she muttered in a slightly annoyed tone.

"Don't worry, that doesn't happen to my species." he replied with a laugh, finding an empty spot and sitting down. "Anyway, we should probably be going to sleep now."

"I don't know how…" she said, glancing up at the roof as the drops of rain slipped through. "This is gonna be difficult for me…"

"Well, you managed to stay asleep when my ship crashed on this planet, so I'm sure it will be easier than you think."

"That was after I had been asleep though…" she replied as she walked over to Leon, sitting next to him. "But I guess I can at least try to sleep. I don't want to be tired in the morning."

"Yes, we really don't want that…" he smirked, lying down against the leaf-covered surface. "Now, let's sleep already."

Rachel soon laid down on the ground, attempting to ignore the drops of rain that managed to drip on her. After she closed her eyes, a few minutes later she fell asleep.

The next morning as Rachel began waking up, she began to notice a terrible stench that filled the air around her. She slowly opened her eyes, surprised to see that much of the shelter was torn down, most likely because of the storm last night. As she sat up, she began to look around, noticing that everyone was still in the same places that they had been in, still asleep. The strange stench was beginning to bother her, which was when she thought of something after looking at the Ke'zuka. She noticed that their fur was damp, which made her think that the smell was coming from them.

"Eww… Wet dog smell…" Rachel whispered in complaint. She carefully stood up and slowly began walking in the direction of the lake, not wanting to wake anyone up just yet. "I'm definitely gonna need to bathe before Leon starts complaining about me stinking. That stench is probably stuck to me now…" After quickly removing every bit of her uniform, she simply placed it on the edge of the lake and stepped inside the water, beginning to bathe. "Hopefully I can finish before they wake up…"

After what seemed to be five minutes later, Rachel began to notice something moving out of the corner of her eye that was close to the shelter. She was almost finished bathing, so she didn't worry too much about whatever it was. However, whenever it seemed to be staring at her, that's when she began to take notice. She quickly turned her head over to what was watching her, only to see that it was Leon. She speedily sank down into the lake, leaving only her head above water. Her face flushed red with embarrassment. "Hey, can I have some privacy here?" she asked him in an annoyed, yet slightly nervous tone.

Leon quickly turned his head away from her. "Um yes, sorry about that…" he replied, obviously nervous as well. "It was just… distracting…"

"That's not a good enough excuse to be staring at me while I'm taking a bath…"

After she managed to focus off Leon, her gaze soon turned to what was now beside him, now seeing all three of the Ke'zuka staring intensely at her.

"…Okay that's enough! All three of you look away and let me finish my bath! It's all your faults for rubbing your wet dog smell off on me in the first place!"

Even though she said this, the Ke'zuka only continued to stare at her, almost as if they didn't even hear a word that she said.

"Oh, sorry Rachel, I forgot to turn the translator back on…" she heard Leon reply. After a few seconds, he continued. "Alright, it's on now…"

"All three of you, stop staring at me." she said, still glaring at the Ke'zuka. In response, they soon looked away.

"Sorry, Rachel…" Kelnka replied, sounding somewhat uneasy. "Anyway, while you are busy with that, I'm going to see if I can find the warriors… I noticed they hadn't returned still…" After saying this, he stood up and began to walk away, soon disappearing into the dense forest. Only a few seconds later, the two healers stood up and quickly began to follow behind as well.

Rachel sighed in relief, soon beginning to continue her bath after getting a bit more relaxed. "You know, you might need to take a bath too." she said to Leon. "You probably have that wet dog smell too."

"Yes, you are probably right…" he sighed. "I can still smell it around here."

A few seconds later, Rachel heard him beginning to walk to the lake, stopping somewhere a distance away from her. As she turned her head over to him to see what he was doing, she noticed that he was beginning to remove his uniform. She quickly turned her head away, embarrassed yet again. "You are seriously going to do that while I'm still in here?" she complained, sinking deeper into the water. "Why can't you wait until I'm finished?"

"Well, since we have a limited amount of daytime, this seems to be the quickest way." he replied. "If I waited, then we would have less time after I finished."

"Fine…" she uneasily replied as she heard him beginning to enter the water. "Just try to stay far away from me…"

"Don't worry, I will." he replied with a slight laugh. "I know how to respect other's privacy."

"I don't really think so…" she muttered to herself as she continued to bathe once again.

About a minute later as she was about to finish up, out of the corner of her eye she noticed the armored Grox demon appear in the dense forest a distance in front of her, seeing his terrifying glowing eyes staring directly at her. She quickly sank down into the water yet again. "Please not again…" she whispered, knowing that he could end up forcing her into unconsciousness again like the last time.

"What's wrong?" she heard Leon ask somewhere behind her.

She turned her head in his direction, still keeping the majority of her body underwater. "The demon is nearby… I just saw him…" Right as she turned her head to the direction that she expected the demon to be in, she instantly realized that he was gone. However, she soon began to notice the familiar, sickly aura began to surround her body yet again, painfully coursing through her. She immediately collapsed in the water after not being able to handle the intense pain any longer. However, she was now completely submerged under the water. She hoped Leon would attempt to save her, but as the seconds passed she began to think that he had somehow disappeared like what happened during the demon's first attack. As she began gradually running out of air, she attempted to move herself back to the surface. However, the energy around her seemed to pin her in place. She knew that the demon was going to simply drown her, remembering what he had said the first time.

Right as she gave up, she felt an icy, metallic hand grasp around her neck, swiftly lifting her out of the water and tossing her back on the surface. She gasped for air, relieved that she was able to breathe yet again. However, her relief disappeared once she saw who saved her, seeing the malicious Grox demon glaring intensely at her.

"I thought I told you to not interfere with my plans." the demon growled, continuing to stare angrily at her. "I'm sure that since you decided to disobey my orders, you probably forgot all about the punishment."

"I didn't forget…" Rachel replied, glaring back at the demon. "I'm guessing since we are going after the shadow creature, that thing has something to do with your plans?"

"Oh, so you've figured it out." he smirked. "At least part of it. Anyway, I believe it is time for your punishment. I'm not going to claim your soul yet, but just think of this as a warning."

"…What are you going to do to me? Torture I guess?"

"Yes, there will be torture…" he replied with a malevolent grin, kneeling down beside her. "But probably not what you are thinking about. You see, you just happen to have a lack of armor on your body… That makes it much easier for me to use a simple form of torture on you…" Rachel watched as he extended his clawed hand out to her, beginning to stroke the center of her chest somewhat gently. "And who knows, you might actually enjoy this…"

"…You better not even try…" she replied, now obviously uneasy about the situation.

"There's nothing you can do about it." the demon grinned as he continued to stroke her. He slowly moved his head down to her neck, giving her a light kiss. "There is no escape." he whispered to her. "You are mine now."

Rachel instantly attempted to shove the demon back, but the dark energy surrounding her continued to keep her pinned in place. "Let me go!" she shouted. "You can't do this to me!" After noticing that he seemed to ignore her and continue what he was doing, she knew that she had to surrender. She closed her eyes tightly in attempt to block out everything that he was doing to her.

After what seemed to be many hours later, the demon finally managed to finish. She slowly opened her eyes once again, feeling the aching pain that he caused her to have. Once she managed to glare weakly at the demon, he vanished into thick, black smoke. The sickly aura vanished, and her vision soon began to blur to where she could see nothing at all.

As her vision began to become clear yet again, she immediately noticed that she was lying inside what seemed to be the shelter, yet now it was obviously rebuilt. The pain from before had disappeared, although she still felt weakened. She looked around slightly, noticing the three Ke'zuka curled up in different places around the shelter. This made her assume it was either close to nighttime or daytime, since she saw a few beams of light passing through the many cracks in the shelter's roof.

After she managed to sit up, she instantly realized that her uniform was back on. She sighed in relief, even though she was a bit embarrassed knowing that someone would have to see her naked in order to do that, but she didn't worry about that much. What happened before was far worse than that for the minor embarrassment to bother her. She gazed around the shelter in search of Leon, yet he was nowhere in sight. Thinking that he could be somewhere outside, she got up and exited the shelter.

She shifted her head over towards the lake after exiting, soon turning her focus towards Leon, who was sitting at the lake's edge facing away from her. She was somewhat relieved once she noticed that his uniform was back on, but something didn't seem right about him. He seemed to have his face cupped in his hands, slumping over slightly. To her, this gave her the impression that he was in a depressed mood, yet she was unsure of why.

Once she decided to walk over to him, she stopped closely behind him and gazed downwards at him. "Leon, what's wrong?" she calmly asked.

Leon's ears immediately perked up, and he swiftly turned around, standing up and hugging Rachel tightly. "I thought you were dead, Rachel… You have been unconscious for so long…"

"It happened again… The demon… He caused that to happen…"

"Well at least you are still alive…" he replied, releasing his grip from around her.

"…You know, I found out that the shadow creature has something to do with the demon's plans." she said. "I don't know what it's going to be used for though…"

"I'm sure we'll figure that out once we find out where that creature is. Anyway, it's almost morning now so we should probably start moving again." As he began to leisurely walking towards the shelter, Rachel followed alongside him, now in a somewhat uneasy mood.

"…Actually, I think we should just turn back and leave them to deal with the creature… I don't like this anymore…"

"We can't just leave them…" Leon replied, stopping and looking at Rachel.

"Well you don't know what I just went through…" she replied, having a slight melancholy tone in her voice, stopping and looking at Leon as well. "This is the second time he's caused me to go unconscious, and this time it was much worse than the first time… It's just going to continue until he eventually kills us both… He threatened to take our souls away…"

"…What did he do to you?" he asked, seemingly ignoring everything after she mentioned the second time of unconsciousness being worse than the one before.

"…I don't know if I want to talk about it…" she sighed, slowly turning her gaze away from Leon.

"Please just tell me…" he replied, obviously concerned about what happened. "Whatever he did to you, I'll make sure he suffers…"

After a few seconds of silence, she soon spoke. "He… he raped me…" she said in an almost inaudible voice. "…It was terrible… He said that was meant to be a warning… That's how I know that if we continue on and try to ruin his plans, this will only get worse…"

"…I'm sorry for mentioning that, Rachel…" he paused for a few seconds. "…You should go back to the village while I go find that demon… I'll kill him for you."

"But then, what if he does the same to you?" she replied in a sterner tone. "He's going to kill you before you even get there… I don't want you to die…"

"…Someone has to help these people. They can't fight the demon as well as I could. Just trust me, I'll defeat him."

As he began walking to the shelter, Rachel began to feel tears forming in her eyes. "Leon… Please don't go…"

He immediately stopped walking and turned his head in her direction. "I'm sorry, but I have to… Just go back to the village and you'll be safe from harm." He looked away from her and began walking again.

She sighed as she looked away from him, feeling a few tears rolling down her face. Behind her, she heard Leon telling the Ke'zuka that she was going back to the village. Only a few minutes later, she could hear the sounds of the group's footsteps walking, gradually fading away every second. She began to trudge away from them, going back towards the village.

As she walked, she began to think about what had just happened. For some reason, she just knew that Leon wasn't going to survive the mission. She knew that since he was a general, then he must have survived through a lot before. But for some reason this seemed different. She didn't think that he would be able to defeat a powerful demon.

After what seemed to be an hour of walking, she still didn't seem anywhere near the village. She was confused, not recognizing anything in the environment from earlier. "Great… now I'm lost…" she muttered to herself. "Guess his plan of keeping me safe isn't really going to work…"

She soon exited from the forest, now entering what seemed to be vast, rolling plains. The lukewarm breeze blew the lengthy, bright green grass as she stepped through it. No trees were in sight, however a large mass of rock was visible in the near distance. As she began approaching the piece of stone, she noticed a dark and lustrous vein of metal that reflected the sun's light off part of the surface. Not knowing of anything better to do, she decided to go investigate.

Once she finally approached the strange mass of rock, she noticed a few smaller chunks of the metal sticking out of the ground or just lying across the surface nearby. She bent down beneath the tall, flowing grass and picked up one of the smaller, seemingly broken off pieces of the metal. She ran her fingers across the smooth surface, realizing that it surprisingly was warm to the touch. "That's interesting I guess…" she said as she continued examining the object. She simply slipped the metal in her pocket, deciding to keep it for some reason.

Soon after, she moved around and laid her back against the rock, sitting down against it in attempt to rest. Walking for so long had made her tired, and the bright sun wasn't helping her any. She knew that she should probably move back towards the forest, but for now she believed this was a safer place to rest, since she pretty much would be invisible to anything that would want to eat her because of the tall grass.

About a few minutes after resting, she heard the footsteps of something approaching behind the rock. She cautiously got to her feet, keeping herself bent down as she peaked around the rock through the grass. She crawled around close to the ground for a bit until she finally noticed what she was hearing. What she saw was a familiar Omega Grox approaching the rock, seeming to be holding a small, cylindrical device in one of his clawed hands.

She quickly moved back behind the rock, hoping that he didn't see her. "…Mutare?" she whispered to herself. "…That is so random… Why is he here?" Right after saying this, she heard his footsteps getting closer to her, soon noticing him in the corner of her eye. She quickly looked up at him, pulling out her blaster since she knew she would have to defend herself.

"Why are you here?" he asked her, glaring down at her. He didn't seem threatened, even after he glanced at the blaster she was holding.

"I should be asking you the same thing." she replied, glaring at him as well. "Leon's ship crashed on this planet and we have nowhere to go."

"And where is that waste of red fur now?" he asked, gazing around at the environment around him. "I don't seem to see him anywhere."

"…He went to go help the people who live here kill a demon and a shadow creature." she sighed. "I'm afraid he's not going to return…"

"If you're talking about the demon who brought me here, he probably won't." he replied, focusing back on her.

"Why would that demon want you here anyway?" she asked, now confused. "I wouldn't think a demon would need an assimilator to help it…"

"He is forcing me to build a biomechanical suit of armor similar to Lord Omega's. He's planning on allowing what you call the shadow creature to fuse itself inside it. The shadow is simply the soul of someone who was killed many years ago."

"Who exactly is that? Whoever it is, it must be someone important… Either that or just really evil…"

"It's unfortunately the former Emperor of the first Grox Empire, Groc." he said with a slight growl. "Groc is his apprentice, and now he wants him alive for some type of plan to take control over the galaxy again."

"…I've heard about him… Why would you help that demon resurrect him?"

"It's not like I have a choice." he replied, glaring at Rachel. "He threatened to torture me for eternity if I refused to help him."

"Oh… Well couldn't you just trick him or something? You know, like tell him you're finished with the armor, but have something important missing from inside it? That seems like a good idea to me…"

"Yes, I was planning on something like that. I really don't want that Emperor to return. Anyway, I'm going to be doing what I came here for. Can you step away from the metal?"

"Sure…" she replied, standing up and backing away from the mass of rock. She watched him as he pressed a button on the cylinder, causing a small, red beam of energy to come out of it, pressing it against the rock. He seemed to be cutting a large chunk of the metal out of the rock.

After he finished, he deactivated the device and caused it to spilt into tiny pieces of nanites, which disappeared inside his hand. He quickly pulled the chunk of metal out of the rock, beginning to carry it away.

Rachel simply stood there watching him leave, but she soon began to think of an idea. She knew that she wouldn't be able to survive on her own. "…Um, do you think I could follow you maybe?" she asked, sounding slightly nervous.

"Yeah, sure." he replied, continuing to walk. "But why would you trust me anyway?"

"Because I'm lost and I don't have any other choice." she said, beginning to walk alongside him. "I can't survive out here on my own…"

"Just try not to slow me down or anything." he growled. "And whenever we get to the base, I suggest you hide so Lord Zeku doesn't see you."

"…Zeku?" she asked, confused yet again.

"The demon…" he sighed in an annoyed tone. "He's a very powerful Demon Lord who you probably wouldn't want to mess with."

"Oh… Well anyway, I think that's all the questions I have for now. Except I do have to warn you that I can't walk for as long as you probably can, so I'll need to rest eventually.

Mutare said nothing in response, simply continuing to walk.