The grizzled male drew his sidearm from the holster at his hip as he strode forward, grabbing Ray's free arm. Her heart seemed to have relocated itself to somewhere in her throat, squeezing her windpipe until she felt she couldn't breathe.

She had not felt much when they had been discussing the death of the Apes that he had been robbed the chance to execute, because she knew from her vision in the prison that Diane, Jon, and Parry had escaped and been smuggled out to the resistance. Their deaths were a ruse concocted by this Elie Kaan and, Ray suspected, by Zuhn as well. She was in fact relieved that Surc and the other Cats seem to have been convinced by it.

Parry was safe and alive. Ray was content with that, thought she was content with the reality of her own death so long as Parry lived, but when Grizzled grabbed her arm that illusion of contentment dissolved in the wake of her own terror of death.

Should she be so terrified? The Thing that had happened to her, the Thing that she still did not like to think of, should have comforted her in some way. It should have shown her that death was not an ending as she had believed it to be. She thought, back in that prison cell as she lay withering with dehydration and no hope that death would be a comfort and a blessing now, so long as she knew Parry and the others were all right.

Her surging terror now proved, at least to herself, that such knowledge in fact did not comfort her in the slightest, that she had not made the peace with the realities of death as she had thought she had. She didn't want to go back to that terrifying, raging chaos, to being a helpless observer, forced to watch her friends fight and suffer and grieve. She didn't want to die.

But she was going to. This big, grizzled Kilrathi was going to drag her like a bundle of laundry back out into that courtyard, dump her in the dirt in the light of the setting sun, and blow her brains out. He would think nothing of it, did think nothing of it. Five minutes after doing it he would have all but forgotten it. Her body would be tossed in an incinerator if she was lucky, or if not left out for wild animals to pick clean with no further care than if it had been refuse.

Parry was alive, and for the moment she was as safe as she could be, but right at this moment that reality became no longer enough for Ray. She wanted Parry alive, but she wanted to live too. She wanted to be with Parry again. She wanted it to be like it was back on the Wing, to see her and hold her again and marvel that she'd found someone who truly saw her, cared about her. She wanted to see what their lives could be, together.

She had to fight! Isn't that what she'd told Parry, over and over again, as she saw the other woman giving up hope? Was she worth any less worthy to live her life than Parry was, than any of them were?

All she knew in that one frightening instance of clarity was that she had to fight. It would be futile, it would all come out the same, but she had to try!

With all she had in her, she tried to tear her arm away from the grizzled male, to revolt from him, to do anything but allow herself to be dragged out that door. It was a pitiful effort, her weakness and exhaustion and pain turning it into little more than gritted teeth and a few desperate tugs that gave her no more result than the prick of his claws into her arm.

No…she was feeling claws in both of her arms. The grizzled male had grabbed her, but Karfa had not released his hold, only tightened it. For a moment, the two Cats tugged her in separate directions, each digging their claws in further as they felt the resistance. Some part of her felt slips of blood trickling down her skin. Through her fear she suddenly realized Karfa had raised his voice, calling after Surc.

"Your Majesty, I beg you, please," he was saying. "There is much more we can get out of this one, opportunities we will lose if she is disposed of in so crass a fashion!"

"Crass?" Surc turned back and glared. "This thing is an animal; I'm already doing it far more honor than it deserves by putting a bullet in its head. What I should do is have Garfak crush its skull under his boot- "

"Surc, a moment," Sela said suddenly. She was looking at Karfa with keen interest. "Karfa, are you suggesting this beast is not put to death?"

At last having something of an ear, Karfa leapt on the opportunity, speaking quickly. The momentary tug of war over Ripley ended but the grizzled one- Garfak, she supposed- looked impatient and did nothing to release her.

"Of course not, my ladyship. I would never suggest such a thing. I think only of the glory of Kilrah!"

"Then what is it you are suggesting?" she asked.

"My ladyship, she has the same abilities as those of my kind," he said. "There is still much we don't know in that regard, much we can stand to learn, but as you know we are highly unstable. Only a rare few endure the condition without losing their minds, and those that fall to that end tend to end their lives in…violent ways. Ways that do not leave much of the brain left for study. As well, Her Grace, your beloved sister, deserves more in recompense for her murder than just nameless executions of prisoners."

Sela seemed to be quite intrigued but Surc was growing impatient again. "Speak faster, Karfa."

"Your Majesties were robbed of the chance to destroy the Angel yourselves," Karfa said quickly. "This one…this one not only has the same condition as I but was one of the Angel's command. A friend. A close friend as I understand it."

Ray felt her gut grow cold at this news. How had Karfa known that? Surely he hadn't spied on them so closely, not her Wing in particular-had he? Or had she not kept her doors shut as firmly as she thought she had? That was an even more terrifying thought. If he had seen enough to determine that she and Parry were close, what else had he seen? Had he seen that Angel, Shadow, and Reaper had escaped and still lived?

His words gave Surc pause and he seemed to refocus his full attention on Karfa. "Interesting…"

It seemed Sela, however, was wondering the same as Ray. "How do you know this?"

"As I tried to explain before, I was in contact with Intelligence. Since Her Grace's death, as my esteemed Majesties' know, Intelligence has been gathering any and all information it could on the Angel. This is Ray Caruso, the Angel's wingman, the one that was thought dead in the action that captured the Angel to begin with. You see, her leg? She was gravely injured, lost a limb, but managed to survive. She was captured with the Angel after the Ape Fleet fled the Front."

"That makes her one of the Angel's command," Sela said, eyes glinting. "That does not make her a close friend."

"Yes, your Majesty, that is true. However, in her capture, the Angel seemed quite concerned about this one. Kept trying to protect her. And as you know, when we first had the Angel in our custody, she was tortured. She endured it remarkably, but reports sent and saved in the Intelligence networks before the tragic loss of the Muhs OhDann often caught the Angel speaking in delirium. She mentioned the name Ray many times- this one." Here, he gave Ray's arm a shake, the claws sinking a bit deeper. "There are only shreds of these reports left but…don't you see?"

"This is thin," Sela said, glancing at her brother, who said nothing. Her eyes returned to Karfa. "A few tattered reports that the Angel may have said a similar name in delusion? It could be meaningless. The Angel was cunning, and clearly not as delirious or delusional as she made it seem. And while Apes have no honor they do have a sense of duty to those under their command. She may have moved to protect any one of those she felt responsible for."

"You were taken in by an act," Surc grunted toward Karfa in impatience. "I see nothing here to change my mind, and she is still stinking up my hall."

"R-regardless," Karfa said, and his claws sunk a bit deeper into Ray's arm, possessively. "We have an opportunity here. We have an intact brain that has been changed as mine has been, in the body of an Ape that was likely close to the Angel. All I am saying is, let us not let this opportunity pass. Give me two days with her. She is unpracticed, unskilled in her abilities. I have tested her defenses and they are pitiful. The Apes are no better at training such spies than they are anything else. I will ravage all she knows, any Confed secrets I can glean, and then I will give her a death most fitting to both uphold justice in Her Grace's name and give us valuable scientific information."

"Now I am intrigued," Sela said, moving closer. Her eyes moved to Ray. "What kind of death?"

"I have access to paralytics that will render the subject incapable of moving but with full awareness and sense of feeling. One of my colleague's is Dr. Varnak. When I have gleaned all I can from her live brain- and I can promise you this will be torture in and of itself for our little Ape- I will administer a paralytic and Dr. Varnak and I will perform a most thorough vivisection of her body systems. We'll monitor her brain waves and conclude by dissecting the brain tissues themselves, section by section."

A rumble went through the others. A couple spat in what seemed like disgust but Sela looked delighted.

"She would be alive and fully aware during this?"

"For as much of it as possible," Karfa said. The more he spoke the more his voice sounded as if it were drawing further and further away, as if he were slowly moving down a tunnel. Ray felt paralyzed with the horror of his words but more…with the horror of what he was feeling when he said them. He wanted to do this, and not just for scientific curiosity. He liked to hurt things, and he wanted to hurt her as exquisitely as possible.

She was getting the same feeling from Sela as well, though the look of sheer wonder and delight on her face was hardly difficult to read, even for one such as Ray. Latching onto Sela's obvious eagerness Karfa continued, boldened.

"You will be amazed, your Majesty, with just how much we can slice away at the brain while leaving the subject quite alive and aware of what is happening. Only when she has suffered as much as is possible will we allow her to die. Surely, this would make up for some of the loss you have endured? That we Kilrathi have endured with Her Grace's passing?"

At some point while Karfa was speaking, Garfak had released Ray's arm. She barely noticed. The room seemed to be slowly spinning, her arm burning more and more as Karfa took her weight and held her upright on a leg that no longer wanted to support her. Her ears were ringing, and she distantly wondered how odd it was that true mortal terror could come with a symptom such as ear ringing.

Sela beamed as if Karfa had just offered her some exquisite treasure. "Would this be recorded?"

"Certainly, if your Majesty wishes. I would be honored to record every moment and provide you with a copy of the procedure and any of our findings."

"Oh, Surc, can we?" Sela asked, looking at her brother. "For Ara, and for our scientific edification, of course."

The Emperor ran a hand briefly over his nose and then grunted again. "Fine. It makes no difference to me and enough time has already been wasted. Do whatever you will to that Ape, so long as it suffers and is dead by the end of Grofellig. Now get it out of my sight."

"Thank you, your Majesties." Karfa sketched a deep but somewhat shaky bow, straightening and catching hold of Ray as her legs wanted to collapse again, pulling her back upright with an impatient tug.

"Get it out of here," Garfak said with a dismissive gesture at the door. He'd long since reholstered his sidearm, and now walked toward the table again. Karfa, gripping both of Ray's shoulders now and keeping her close so she didn't collapse, turned her and steered her for the door.

"Now, now, don't fret, Mouse," he said in her ear with a smooth rumble. "I thought we were going to have a bad evening there for a moment when the others were reassigned and I learned of poor Kaan's fate, but things are looking up now, aren't they? Thank Sivar the Duchess has a healthy scientific interest, or that curious little brain of yours would have been splattered over the cobbles in the courtyard. Such a waste, can you imagine?"

Ray's knees sagged again and from some great distance she felt him lift her up again to carry her, his soft but pleased laughter ringing in her ears.