Hey there. This fanfic is a continuation of Children of Ursus - Carrion, which I uploaded some time ago.

I recommend giving that one a read before checking this one out. In a similar vein to that one, this one is rated M for mature themes and some disturbing scenes. I hope you find some pleasure reading this as I did writing it.

Also, sometimes operators are called by their real names and not the codenames. I'll put them at the beginning of each chapter in case you need them.

Quick name reference: Zima=Sonya, Istina=Anna, Gummy=Lada, Leto=Rosalind, Rosa=Natalya, Absinthe=Zoya, Carrion=Mikhail (the OC)


Ticking down

"So preetyyy! This is a one-in-a-lifetime sight, Zoya! Wow, just wow!"

"Don't stare at me so much…"

"Heehee, can't do! The Doctor asked me to record everyone's time in the beach and you won't be the exception!"

The zalak both on the screen and at the dorm had a spicy grin on her mouth. Zoya expressly requested that she wasn't shown in the recompilation video during their trip to the beach, but Click was physically unable to bring herself to delete the footage and kept it as a memento of her time with her friends.

The Click in the film had a one-piece swimsuit with a few transparent frills, whereas Absinthe was forced by the mouse to wear something bolder. The drone hovering over the girls in their swimsuits then tilted over and showed an ursus boy of longer red locks of hair and a very intense blush. Aside from his own swimming trunks, he wore a skin-tight shirt that focused on covering his crystallized shoulder and nothing else.

"Mikhail, the public requests a few comments from you! What do you think? Isn't she pretty?"

"W-What are you talking about?" Mikhail scowled. "Zoya has always been gorgeous! Come on, Click. Don't film her so much, you're embarrassing her… Let's go play!"

"The knight in shining armor!"

"T-That's enough. Beach volleyball it is." The ursus girl announced as she made a conscious effort not to blush too much, but the Click next to her brought attention to how pale her constitution was and how important it was to apply proper sunscreen on her.

"Wanna do it yourself, Mik?" The nonchalant mouse invited, making her friends blush once again. Click enjoyed watching the scene as much as she had enjoyed living it.

The match they played later was ingrained in her brain forever, along with the plastic fibers of the ball. Those ursus were definitively a different breed, but Zoya was particularly intense whenever action was involved. Even though it was 2v1, the ursus girl dominated the match by passing and tossing the ball for her later spikes. The mouse was too busy getting out of the way of the cannonballs and the bear was too distracted by his opponent's charms.

Click had never been as interested in sports as she was in nature or travelling, but she started seeing the appeal in filming her friends and other operators enjoying a relaxing vacation. Although she was just a temporary hire at Rhodes Island when she joined, Click was now a true member of its staff. For the time being, the streamer had no intention to go anywhere else. If her drone malfunctioned or got damaged, there were plenty workshops she could bring it for repairs. If a piece was missing, it was relatively easy to ask for it to one of the many operators going on business trips to other landships. Furthermore, Click found a great assistant to her channel and made lots of friends on the way!

Life was indeed looking bright for the young zalak.

There was only one little thing that was annoying her. "It's been too long since I went to make an outdoors video!" She protested, flailing her arms over the sheets of her bed.

It wasn't as if Click missed the dangers that usually implied such activities. There were times during her solo adventures that she would be eager to forget, but memories weren't as easily editable as her recordings.

As the girl kept projecting her dissatisfaction onto the sheets, a bulb turned on inside her genius head. A few seconds later, she changed out of her bedwear and into her black and yellow cap and jacket, her wide gray shirt and her mouse-like leggings. Then, she picked her caster baton to command her drone to wake up and follow her.


"An outdoor documentary?"

"Yup! Wanna come along? Please come along! It's been so long since we've done something together!"

Absinthe lifted her hands from the keyboard as Click clung to her arm and rubbed her face onto her. The ursus glanced at her unfinished report first and her small friend later. A smile took over.

"Amiya said that I had been focusing too much on work lately, so she gave me permission to take a break… or rather, she ordered me to. Besides, Dr. Kal'tsit gave me the task to make sure you two didn't film anything past your authority levels, so I'm sure they will approve. Where were you thinking of going?"

Click started jumping up and down to celebrate the good news and Zoya worried that the streamer might trip by toppling over the few pillars of reports that adorned her office. "Not too far! We're close to the western side of ursus, so I wanted to go have a look at the local forests, swamps and mountains! We'll depart by the end of the week, so get your things ready! I'm off to scout the other one! Bye!"

After the little tornado had moved elsewhere, Zoya kept her hand reaching out to Click. Her later thoughts made her unable to focus on her last report for a good while. After finishing, she touched her messy hair and grew uneasy.

"I should pay Goldenglow a visit."

Her usually tired red eyes wandered around the office until they landed on her wallet. Temptation grew too strong to resist and she took a little pause to glance at the photos she kept there. There was an old one, where little Zoya was still not an orphan and was happily sandwiched by her parents. She got it from the burnt ruins of her old home as the only remaining piece of evidence that she once had a pair of loving parents.

The next one was a copy of the portrait photo she used to update her operator card. She usually wore a neutral expression on her, but the exhaustion and the nightmares made her look constantly tired. Lately, however, even if she hadn't changed much when it comes to appearance, Absinthe felt stronger than she once did.

Then, there was a more recent picture the mouse sneakily put in. It was a Zoya who had found friends with whom she no longer felt the need to belittle herself. Those two had embarrassed her enough times with compilations of her best moments that she just had to stop second-guessing herself so much.

Ever since the accident in Chernobog shook Absinthe's entire life, she had been trying to fix something that was damaged during those dark days of hunger and ruin: her views on justice. The world was a canvas splattered with nothing but tragedies as far as the eye could see… but every once in a while, there would be little silly moments that shone through the darkness. Times where her biggest worries would be as unimportant as the size of her bikini or the reaction of her friends.

Those pictures were representations of three important aspects. Her past: who she was and what she lost. Her present: her goals in Rhodes Island and her will to become a justice icon as cool as her dad once was. Her future: the hope for simple yet precious moments in her life, where she could be surrounded by those she held close to her scar-ridden heart.

Operator Absinthe was a serious working girl who kept her distance from others and kept a professional attitude about things. However, every once in a blue moon, you could see her in a good mood, her smile beaming across her pale face. Rumor has it that if you see Absinthe's smile, you will enjoy a full month of good luck. There were many blessed people that day.


As Click's short legs skipped over the corridors, the trembling of distant noises announced that she was getting closer to the training grounds. That was usually a very bad sign and all operators feared its meaning. A very very dangerous sarkaz was currently having a literal blast in the training room, which could only mean two things. C. 4.

Maniacal laughs kept filling the spacious room of platforms and tactical buildings. The burns of explosions left marks on the white surfaces. The operators currently training inside the side-chambers were either too distracted to properly focus or too terrified to move, so almost everyone skedaddled as soon as the legendary terror made the area her domain.

Click turned on her drone's camera and saluted to her viewers before daring to open the door. As soon as she stepped in, the zalak crouched and sneaked to the side to find some shelter behind a few crates. From there, she controlled her drone to gain a better understanding of the current situation, almost as if she were working in an actual operation.

From the top of a pillar, a woman of red discreet horns and sadistic expression kept aiming her grenade launcher at the poor souls under her supervision. "Dance, little ants! Dance! Hyaha haha hahahah!"

Click's drone caught sight of someone making hand signs from behind a cover. Afterwards, from the other corner of the room, a whitehaired forte woman revealed herself and aimed a heavy and bulky cannon at W's vantage point. Before the weapon could fire the cannonball, however, the mercenary took out a remote control and triggered the explosives near the forte, sending her flying over a platform and dropping to a painful fall.

Luckily, there was an armored operator ready to catch her. His knightly gear had many banners tied to it, similar to those of the knight teams at Kazimierz. W made another of her sadistic grins and aimed her weapon at the pair of rookies.

"Not on my watch!"

A girl with antlers dashed out of her hideout, planting a scrappy shield before allies and absorbing the impact of the explosive. The shield broke down into many pieces and the blast sent her flying, tackling her partners.

"A three for one deal? With how bad economy has been as of late? I don't even have to think about this one!" W maniacally giggled as she loaded another round into her weapon.

As the explosive threateningly flied towards the novice trainees, a whip slashed through the air to trigger the blast before it could reach the defeated students. The owner had long red hair, blue eyes and sported a long split skirt.

"Thank you very much, miss W. I think that will be enough for today."

The white-haired psycho dropped down and approached the instructor, toying with a hand grenade in her finger. "Eeeeh? Already? That's soooo boring. And here I thought you and I had a thing for torturing weak little things. Did you grow a conscience?"

The other instructor shrugged, his smile unwavering. "Heh. I considered myself to be quite the bully, but I'm afraid I pale in comparison to you, miss. Thank you for accepting to help me in today's training. We're very grateful."

Upset that her biting remarks didn't work on the redhead, W clicked her tongue and glanced at the terrified trio of trainees she had been bombarding for a few hours. Their fear invigorated her enough to forgive that man's insolence.

"You're welcome. I was surprised a member of the Instruction Staff would even consider asking me for help, but I had fun. You know where to find me if you need further… 'assistance'." The sarkaz grinned, sending a chill down everyone's spines. Even Click's.

The mouse retrieved her drone, hugged her legs to shrink and held her breath as the mercenary moved past her and to the exit. Click sighed in relief when W's presence ceased to asphyxiate her.

W's dangerous orange eyes returned as the sarkaz undid her steps and rose an arm towards the mouse. "Bang!"

Click's jump and trembles gave the mercenary even more funny memories to laugh about as she scared everyone on her path through the hallways of Rhodes Island. The streamer held her hands against her head and breathed quickly.

"Don't turn red, don't turn red, don't turn red…" She muttered to herself.

As spooky as that was, Click understood that Rhodes Island and the former Reunion member were now some sort of allies. There was no reason to shake so hard or to worry that there were activated explosives in the crates she was hiding behind. None at all.

"That was rough!" The only male within the trio of trainees cried, dropping his armored body to the floor and creating a quick puddle of sweat.

"Hah! I saved your asses again! It's my victory!" The young girl of wide antlers sang, sticking her chest out.

The more mature forte operator shook her horned head. "Not true. The instruction was that I created a distraction to give you the chance to charge forward. We failed."

"At least nobody's hurt! We survived! I count that as a victory!" The kuranta boy in the armor laughed. "I still can't believe your shitty shield managed to stop that shot."

"If you had the time to craft a shield, couldn't you have made a weapon instead?" The white-haired forte insisted.

"To attack that psycho?! Are you nuts?! Defense is all I could focus on!"

The red-haired instructor stood next to his pupils and cleared his voice.

"Miss W is leagues above any of us. Her combat experience far outweighs anything we could ever achieve in a combat simulacrum. While I have to agree with your choice of focusing on defense against a superior enemy, the exercise was meant to encourage your initiative to defeat enemy threats."

"And survival, Teach." The kuranta knight pointed out.

"Survival is a crucial skill to have, but as a team you need to coordinate with each other or you won't be able to achieve any operative goal. W toyed with you and disrupted your every plan without breaking a sweat. For two entire hours, you've been doing nothing but surviving. As long as that is all that you can achieve, you won't even make it to reserve operator teams."

The instructor's harsh words installed a sour mood on the trio of students. The elafia rose her arms in protest. "But, Carrion, that was W! A living nightmare!"

"Not as fearsome as the Nightmare Knight, but I have to agree!"

"This exercise was far above our current level." The last one nodded her head. "What even was the goal for today's training, sir?"

The ursus man picked his skirt to the side and sat with his students. "To learn your limits. Some of you have prior combat experience, while some of you don't. You've been focusing too much on the things you want to do, you never stopped to question the things that were beyond your possibilities at the moment. Squire, I can promise you W knew perfectly well where you were at all times. For a flag bearer vanguard like you, that only spells trouble."

"Sorry, Teach! But if I am going to be the tip of the spear in every battle, I want to give my weak foes a chance at running away with their tails between their legs!" Squire proudly proclaimed, laughing at the top of his lungs.

Carrion pressed a finger against his forehead and sighed. "You did survive her bombardment, which is not without its own merit. Surviving is fine and all, but if you cannot even do something other than focusing on dodging explosions, how are you going to help the reinforcements getting deployed into battle when you cannot even secure your own position?" The instructor then glanced at the forte. "Cannon, I know you love your weapon."

"Enough to give herself a codename after it!" Her teammate added.

"I don't dispute its potency, but it is a handful to operate and a slow one at that. How many shots did you fire during the exercise?"

"None, sir."

"That's right. As a besiege sniper, not firing a single round means the enemy won't have any trouble in oppressing your allies. It is up to you to gain that upper hand and, once it's secured, increase the vantage. It all starts with the first round fired, even if it misses."

"Understood. I will work on my firing rate." Cannon replied.

Carrion squinted his eyes, worrying that his student had reduced his entire explanation into 'faster' and left all other details out. There were many things he wanted to tell his student, but Cannon worked better by focusing on one thing at a time.

"Yeah! Tell'em, Teach! They suck!" The elafia girl mocked as she sat next to him.

Carrion grabbed her head to make her look at him, careful about her voluminous antlers. "And you, Salvager, should not forget about combat operatives so easily. If you want to be a proper liberator guard, you will have to follow orders to the letter. You can't keep doing your thing and expecting things will work out in the end. Thinking for yourself is a good virtue, but if that initiative ends up disrupting the entire squad formation, it's nothing but a nuisance."

"B-B-But, Teach! You're so cruel! How could you be so harsh on me?"

"Hahahaha! Save your fake tears! Besides! If you think I'm harsh, you should have seen me a few years ago!"

"Your instructor was a wicked punk, back in the day!" The zalak streamer joined in by jumping onto the ursus' back. "You told me you were a bully, but putting them against W should be illegal."

"Hey! Hi, Click. I… Hey! Wait! Where do you three think you're going? We have to clean the room before the next group comes!"

Booing and crying their cursed fate, the pupils dragged their aching bodies to the storeroom to fetch the cleaning utensils. If getting toyed around by a sadistic sarkaz was not bad enough, they had to clean up after her mess. Breathing another sigh, Mikhail slouched his back as the mouse played with his hair.

"It's so long already…"

"It gets in my way sometimes, but I've got it sorted out during operations. How about you, Click? Have you never considered growing your hair? It would give you a different air."

"Hhhhmmmmmm! Once or twice!"

"To get more views, I bet."

"You know me too well, heehee!"

"As much as I enjoy lording over my squad, I'm not evil enough to leave them alone in their struggle. There's a lot to clean and not too much time to do it."

"I'll help too!"

"Really? You're the best."

Click was aware and she also knew what she would be asking of Carrion as thanks for her assistance. As much as she would love to get his input in her latest works, the instructor had been so busy with his new duties that there was no more space in his agenda. It had been a long while since she hung around with him, but that was close to being remedied.


"A trip to the countryside? With you and Zoya?" The showering ursus boy asked to the mouse looking through the things in his room.

"Don't say you don't want to! It's been ages!"

His once almost empty room was now covered with calendars, boxes filled with documents and training gear. The photos of the many times the three of them played together throughout the last year were the only tidy part of the place. The streamer knew perfectly well how many times she had to spin over the chair before it would unscrew itself and tear apart, yet she spun as nonchalantly as ever.

The bear boy came out of the bath with a towel strapped around his waist, his hands busy drying his long hair with another. Click always lost some energy whenever she saw his shoulder. There were so many crystals it hurt to look.

"Okay, I won't say that." Mikhail smiled. "You know I would never miss a chance to spend some quality time with either of you, but… it's not been exactly easy on me. My job, I mean."

"You always wanted to become an instructor."

"I'm not sure I could call myself one, though."

"Why? The things you told them made a lot of sense."

"If saying something was enough to make it enter someone's thick skull, those three would have become full-fledged operators by now." He chuckled before opening the drawer to find himself some clothes. Click turned around as she usually did. "They are my first trainees. You could say Dobermann assigned them to me in order to test whether I was ready or not. It's been almost a year since I became an operator. I have to agree that it's still too soon for me to teach anyone when I myself am not so experienced, but…"

"But?" The mouse asked, taking a peek at his butt before it was properly clothed.

"I accepted the chance I was given, but I still worry that I won't be good enough."

Click turned around. The ursus man before her was tall and, even though he wore a comfy long skirt with a split side and his hair was long enough to reach his waist, his face remained too handsome to be mistaken for a girl. His muscled torso was proof of how hard he trained during the last year; his dumbbells evidence of his regular exercising. Carrion had an undying preference for skin-tight shirts, but he had given up his old school uniform jacket to favor standard Rhodes Island gear. That uniform was now a memento, hanging from his room's wall. The ursus still cleaned it with regularity.

"Come with us, Mik. You could always use a break to gather your thoughts on the matter. And if that's not enough, you know you can always come find us."

"Oh, shush. It's still too early to make me cry, you!"

"Heehehe. Although… I'm sure one of us is particularly more interested in you reaching out to her…" Click's eyebrows suggested in their dance.

"…okay, I deserve this. This is my punishment for lending you my romance comics."

"Come on! Admit it! You like her, don't you?"

Mikhail squinted his eyes and rested his hand on his hips. He knew that when her drone had its red light on, that meant she was currently recording audio only. He smirked.

"Yeah, I love Zoya."

"Kyaaaa!"

"Just as much as I love you, Click."

"Boooo! That's not what I'm talking about and you know it!"

"Guilty as charged, haha."

As the zalak kept protesting about her ship never setting sail despite all her efforts, the ursus instructor glanced at the stack of papers he kept on his desk and remembered the report he had to make on the latest training session. Dobermann tasked him with keeping her updated on those three's progress and Mikhail was not going to disappoint.

"Sorry, Click. I'm about to get a little busy."

"Ah, but what about the trip? You absolutely have to come!" Her resolve was so strong she stole all his pens and refused to give them back until he agreed to go.

As much as Mikhail enjoyed the excuse to not pick a pen up, he was no longer as immature to avoid doing something just because it took him some effort. He patted the streamer's head.

"Fine. I'll see what I can do."

"Yaaaay! Or as you say, uraaaaaa!"

"Hahaha, there's no end to your energy, huh? Oh, I know! Would it be okay if I brought my squad along? I've been meaning to give them some field experience for a while."

Click ceased to jump around and held onto the drawer's door, a nervous look taking over her blue eyes. "Are there any felines?"

"Nope."

"Then sure! The more the merrier! I'll contact you with the details later!" Before the streamer finished stepping out of his quarters, she stopped, halted the recording of her drone and turned around. "Hey, how are you doing, Mikhail?"

"That's a rare sigh. A straight-faced Click. Your viewers wouldn't believe it possible."

"Don't tease me." She protested. "That… didn't look very good."

It wasn't even necessary for her to explain what she meant by 'that'. The zalak had seen her friend's worsening condition from up close, so she knew just how hard he had it. Carrion sighed and rubbed his neck, trying not to think too much on the other pain in his body.

"The suppressants have not been working too well on me lately. My infection has developed in problematic directions… Don't worry, though. My students will have to tolerate me for some more time before I kick the bucket."

"Is it that bad?"

"Hey, don't make that face. I just told you I'm not going anywhere anytime soon, didn't I? I mean, besides that trip, haha. Come on, don't be like that... You'll go berserk."

"I won't!" Click protested, fighting back against her reddening eyes.

"…I have faith. With people like the Doctor and Kal'tsit looking for a cure, I'm sure the war against oripathy will eventually reach an end. I promise you that I will do my best to life long enough to see the day."

"A promise? But you hate making those…"

"That's how much you mean to me."

Squashed by the fear of losing her dear friend, Click hugged his belly and sniffled away. For every tear she shed, Mikhail resolved himself to live a year longer no matter what. After the gray-haired zalak was comforted back to her usual energetic self and waved her goodbyes, the redhead ursus glanced at the photos on his desk.

"That 'ship' won't sail, Click. I would never do that to Zoya. I'm infected and I will leave this world much sooner. I-"

Carrion stopped his muttering, closed his eyes, breathed in, out, in, out, waited until the pain in his heart was hidden by his shoulder's and reached for the pen.