Bunny sat on a cold bench in the lab's main control room, bored, and quite offended. Her Reggie was missing, probably off somewhere being manipulated by Prince or General Aud, and Prince was torturing poor Kai. She knew well enough that she wasn't the brightest bulb in the box, but she understood enough that they'd put that man through enough. Her man wasn't at all acting like himself either, ever since the asteroid incident, he'd been paying less and less attention to her, and she didn't like being ignored.
Dr. Hofryn wasn't much help either. She was brilliant, but she was so brilliant, everyone in the building barely ever understood what she was talking about. Bunny passed the endless time the first few days exploring, and the last few asking around about the controls. Since Prince was the reason she was feeling so alone, and she was so used to him, she couldn't be afraid anymore, she was going to get back at him, and get her man back for good. She'd figured out where the cell controls were thanks to some flirting with a few of the guards, and even wrote down the number of Kai's cell, so when the time came to flip the switch, the bindings on his right arm would give way. Then she learned how to work the machine that sent messages on any frequency. She didn't want to take her chances with a possibly crazy Kai running around free; it would be better for him to learn how to be human again with people he was comfortable with. That time to do her deed was now. She stood up as soon as she saw the guard leave his post for the day, and slunk toward the room.
She had made it to the the sliding doors, but before she could step through them, she jumped backward as an arm came over her shoulder, holding her from going through the door. She whirled around to be face to face with Prince, whose eyes were blazing with anger. "What are you doing, Bunny?" he asked quietly.
"Oh-uh...just going to the bathroom," she stammered.
"Then why are you acting so suspicious?" said Prince. "Especially when the bathroom is not in this corridor,"
"I-It isn't?" she said.
"No," said Prince. "You wouldn't be trying to open Kai's cell, would you?"
"What makes you think that?" she squeaked.
Prince held up a small slip of paper, and she gasped. It was the number to Kai's cell. "I found this recently," he said. "Now why would you want to betray me? You are aware of what happens to those who do,"
Bunny thought quickly, realizing that she could get out of this. "Prince, I'm really sorry about this!" she said, slamming him in the groin with her knee.
Prince immediately curled up, grunting in pain as his hands went to the injured area and his eyes bulged. She then slammed him as hard as she could in the back of his neck while it was exposed, and he fell face forward onto the cold linoleum floor. "I hope you don't hate me tomorrow," she said, as she slipped into the control room.
"Xev!" Stan whined. "What are you doing?!"
Xev finished clipping her hair to the back of her head, and cleaned the slime off her sword. She'd changed into a pair of slacks and a jacket since she'd returned, knowing that this sort of manuever wouldn't be easy in a skirt. "I'm going down to that planet. It shouldn't be too far in a moth," she said. "You can come, if you like,"
"Aw, Xev listen to me, that was Bunny we were talking to! The same Bunny who works with Prince, and the same Bunny who doesn't know if she's coming or going,"
"So?" said Xev, pushing past him, shealthing her weapon.
"Do you hear what I'm saying?!" said Stan. "Does the name Prince convince you at all?"
"Convince me of what, exactly?" she asked, walking out onto the bridge.
Stan caught her and put his hands on her shoulders. "Xev, think about what she told me," he said. "Do you really believe that Kai is alive again?"
"Well, you seemed to, since you called me all the way back up here," she said with a shrug.
"Look, I was just surprised, but if you think about it, the chances are nil! I'm sorry, Xev, but he's gone. We all saw what happened to him,"
Xev pulled away, crossing the bridge to a moth and throwing her weapon inside. "But what if it really is true, Stan? We can't just leave him,"
"So what if it is?!" said Stan. "He might not remember us, or he might not want us to find him! He'll be fine on his own!"
Xev glared at him, stopping in mid-climb. "I can't believe you'd do something like that to someone who saved your life," she said coldly.
"Do what?!" he said. "He can't be alive, he was reduced to a particle the size of a pea!"
"Well I'm going whether you like it or not," said Xev. "I'm not giving up on Kai just yet,"
Stan frowned, the thoughts in his head winding around themselves, and climbed into the moth next to her as she started it up. She smiled as he shut the hatch. "I knew you'd come," she said.
Kai suddenly felt the pressure on his right arm loosen somewhat, just enough for him to release his brace and slit the straps suspending his right arm from the slab. He effortlessly ripped the straps holding his clothing down, somewhat relieved that not all of his strength was overwritten. He couldn't understand why, since much of him still longed for death, but he didn't want to die here. If he was going to die again, it would have to be a warrior's death.
After unbuckling his legs from the restraining slab, he ripped a bigger hole in his sleeve where his brace was, so it wouldn't be obstructed. He looked around the room, and saw that there had been a camera observing his actions at every minute. He looked up, knowing that he hadn't been released for good behavior. "Thank you," he said, then proceeded to destroy it with his brace.
He looked at the sliding, steel doors in front of him, and looked over them, knocking on certain spots quietly. Finding the weak spot in the crack between them, he fired his brace again, and forced them apart with a few shots. He had to make it quick before the doors slid shut again, and crush him, but he managed to get through, and surprised to find that no one was waiting outside the corridor for him.
Instead, he found several dismembered ATF bodies, covered in green slime! Next to the bodies and pools of human blood, were small, insect-like creatures shot to pieces by the ATF. Alarms were sounding, but everyone who was living seemed too busy in running for their lives to notice an escaped prisoner. He thought a moment, tilting his head to the side out of habit, and went in the direction people were fleeing from, priming his weapon.
He didn't have to go very far on the other hand, as one of the mysterious creatures jumped at his throat. Dispatching the first creature easily, he had to dodge two more. He landed in a pool of slime, which didn't exactly hurt, but sort of burned the skin, and didn't have more time to think as one latched itself to his arm. Before he could kill it, it sank its tiny, pinprick-like teeth into him. He ripped it off, not prepared for the pain that came along with it, and found that the second insect was already heading for him. He broke his assailant in two, and rolled to the side as the other insect, suddenly bigger than he remembered, stuck a sort of stinger out, and was trying to skewer him on it.
He rolled to his left, shielding himself with the corpse of an ATF soldier, finding that the stinger reduced flesh to nothing in seconds. Firing his brace at the creatures head, it leapt onto the wall, and landed on top of him this time, but before it had the chance to stab him, it suddenly screeched in pain, and twitched. It's central nerve system had been pierced. Pushing it off him, Kai saw what had done the damage, and didn't notice the relief washing over him. Xev smiled back at him, almost innocently as she yanked a sword out of her prey. "I hate these things," she said.
Kai wasted no time in standing, and asking the obvious. "What is it?"
"I'm not sure exactly," said Xev, dragging him along behind her. "But everywhere me and Stan go, they seem to follow us. Come on, there's no hope left for this place,"
"So you brought them with you?" he asked.
"If you want to put it that way," said Xev.
Kai killed an oncomming insect as it scuttled overhead, and followed her down another corridor. "How did you find me?" he asked.
"Bunny," said Xev, as she killed another creature. "Don't worry, I saw to it that she and Priest, and Prince sadly made it out all right,"
"And what of Stanley?"
"He's waiting for us underneath this annex," said Xev. "I had to break in, and Stan wouldn't have any part in it,"
They would have headed straight for an exit of any kind, but a woman's screaming stopped them. Kai motioned for Xev to keep watch for any guards or insects, and headed in the scream's direction. He still knew the difference between good and evil, and knew that it would be a bad choice to leave her.
He ran, following the source of the sound, and saw into another cell like his own, that the guards were trying to strap a tall blonde woman into the confinement slab. "Come on, honey," said one of the guards. "We only got five minutes to live, so what's the harm in a little-"
She was struggling so much he couldn't see her face through all the hair, but she was strong. She raised one fist, sending the would-be rapist in Kai's direction, which he quickly dispatched with his brace. The other guard knocked the woman to the ground with a backhanded fist, and tried to grab Kai's arm, but it was all too easy for Kai to twist the guard's arm around, and slash the other man's throat. "Two more lives," he thought. "I suppose it'll never stop,"
He quickly crossed the room, and cautiously touched the woman's shoulder as she nursed her sore cheekbone, softly crying. "You should have let them kill me," she said curtly.
Her sobs sounded more angry than sorrowful, and he didn't understand the feeling of pity welling up inside him as he knelt down to touch her shoulder. Instead of looking up, she jerked away from him, yelling "Touch me and die! I don't need saving!"
He knew that voice, and couldn't believe it was true. She had been destroyed even before he had. "Vlad?" he asked warilly.
Even though her hair was down, and thankfully she was de-fanged, Vlad turned around with pure hatred and malice in her eyes. He stood, and looked her over closely. She looked much smaller without her wings and triangular hairstyle. Unlike him, her weapon was gone, and the snake in her chest was also missing, since he could see no Divine Order symbol anywhere on her. "You are human," he said.
"As are you!" she spat distastefully. "There would be no pleasure in killing you now,"
"Yes," he agreed. "Whatever has been done to us is unexplainable, but it's only a matter of time before they find that we have escaped. Come,"
"I don't take orders from Divine Assassins," said Vlad, still in her collapsed, weakened position on the floor. "Leave me,"
Kai looked away from her, thought about the situation, and then quietly yanked her up by the arm, and dragged her behind him. She may have been his enemy, and she may have nearly killed him on two occassions, but he still felt an odd kinship to her. She was in the same situation as he was, and like him, was starting to see how inconveinient being human really was, except he thought she was worse off, since her brace hadn't been rebuilt along with her body. The question in his head however, was why would they ressurect her, too? Wasn't she useless without her Parablood? Kai didn't understand or care, but he wasn't going to leave her to die.
She struggled, trying to wrench out of his grip, trying to kick and punch him as he caught her around the waist, pinning her arms to her sides. Like his own, her physical strength wasn't nearly what it used to be, but his was apparantly better than hers for a change. Xev's eyes widened, and she turned away from her hiding place as she helped him by grabbing one of Vlad's arms, so they could drag her between them. "How is she-"
"I do not know," said Kai, dodging a sudden outburst of flailing legs. "But she will die here if we leave her,"
"Understood," said Xev. "We can take her back up to the-"
"I wish to die!" Vlad screamed. "Leave me here! I do not wish to be such a pathetic-"
Kai ignored her, desperately hoping that she wasn't going to draw attention to any nearby insects. "Vlad, if you insist on having a tantrum, the dead will not complain. However, you must wait, for if we stay here any longer, this annex will be filled with insects," said Kai, as he and Xev dragged her.
"I worship His Divine Shadow!" said Vlad. "I do not fear any living insect,"
Xev snarled in her deep, angry cluster lizard way. "You will if they're ripping you to pieces!" she screamed, slamming the ex-Divine Executioner on the back of the neck with her fist.
Vlad's eyes rolled up in the back of her head, and she suddenly went limp. Kai easilly picked her up in her unconcious state, and looked at Xev, who was smiling that sweet, innocent smile yet again. "Thank you," he said.
"No problem," Xev said brightly.
Killing a few more insects, Xev sheathed her sword as they came to the exit, where Genreal Aud and Dr. Hofryn lay dead, and keyed in the code for it to open. "Where did you learn that?" he asked.
"...You've missed a lot," she said sweetly. "Now come on, we have to make it to the moth,"
"A moth?" said Kai. "But the Lexx was destroyed,"
"We have a new one," said Xev, taking off at a run. "Stop fooling around!"
He followed after her, curious about the fact that he still took her orders as if he were just as dead as he was when he met her. He began to wonder about whether or not his body was alive, while his mind remained dead, or if that this life was temporary. Hadn't Prince told him that the cell he was regrown from had been damaged? Trying to focus on something other than Vlad's dead weight, which would have been nothing at a time, he thought suddenly about Xev. Watching as she ran ahead of him, killing the oncomming insects and injuring the guards on the base since he had to protect Vlad, he could see that he barely knew her anymore. Maybe Stanley was the same way...Kai knew that he never really belonged with the living, and this was just starting to eat away at him now. He felt he'd just been gone for so long, why should he want to be among the living at all anymore? None of it had made sense for as long as he'd remembered who he was, and now, he was simply more confused than before.
Xev yanking him down an alley between two labs shook him of all doubts, as she jumped down a small hole in the ground. She looked up at him, gesturing for him to lower Vlad down to her. He complied, trying not to drop the limp woman, or slam her head in a certain way that might end her life. He'd once told Vlad that she deserved to suffer, and he still believed she did. Only now she deserved to suffer living a mortal life, since she wanted death so much. As Xev caught Vlad, he jumped down the hole as well, landing easily as ever. He'd had way too much time to perfect something so simple.
Looking around, he could see she'd lead him into an underground tunnel of some sort, and right next to them was a moth, with Stan pacing agitatedly around it.
The security guard immediately did a double-take as Xev loaded their former enemy into the back of the moth, and then looked at Kai with pure terror. "Xev!" he said. "What are you doing?! How'd she come back?! And what about-"
"Stan," Xev said quietly, hopping into the pilot seat. "It's okay...it's really Kai,"
"How do you know that?!" said Stan. "Vlad is with him!"
Kai came closer. "She is not with me. Had I not rescued her, she would have been killed.
Xev rolled her eyes. "Come on!" she said.
Kai continued past, and hopped into the moth, squeezing in the back with Vlad, and Stan wasn't so convinced. "So we're just keeping him?!" he said, running after him (he didn't want to be left behind, after all) "He could be Prince, or someone else who wants to kill us!"
"I will explain everything, but if you still do not believe me, then you may kill me yourself, Stan," said Kai.