Thank you to Viviene001, Wolfsrain278 and Mizuna Kurenagi for review last chapter
Chapter XXI: Subject M
How many days had it been since Hubb arrived in this place?
After staring at these same walls for as long as he had, the detective couldn't help but feel like he'd always been here. The cells he was left in were cold, lacked bedding and were deafeningly silent. Sleeping was hard if even possible and it only got worse after that. Hubb was barely fed, given just enough water to make it through the next day.
It left him compliant, zombie like to the routine Jagura's men placed him under.
They left Hubb in a cell, sometimes with others, other times alone.
Hubb sat around questioning the point of this mindless torment and what they were going to do with him.
They haven't answered him yet and he had a feeling they never would
Sometimes, Jagura's men woke him up at odd hours, gathered up all the prisoners and moved them.
Today was one of those days.
Chained by the wrist and ankles to a man in front of him and a man behind him, Hubb walked down the long corridors of the Keep almost listlessly. It was the same routine… only today it would seem it wasn't…
Just as the prisoners approached a cross road, the soldiers stopped them and Hubb was woken from his complacent state.
Two soldiers were speaking but this was nothing new. It was how they kept security tight in this place. Soldiers had to state where they were going, what they were doing and for what reason. Every encounter was verified to prevent spies and thieves from slipping into their ranks.
They had precious cargo in the Keep after all-even if Hubb still didn't understand why Cheza was so important.
Today, however, it looked like they had another.
From his place, Hubb found his gaze finding a lone spot of white among the sea of black armor. It was...a woman? She was dressed in an elegant white gowned and her long black hair reached the floor. Her face looked so ...familiar?
From where he stood, Hubb stared hard at the unconscious girls face until a faint-almost fuzzy image came to mind from all the way back in Freeze City. It was of a black haired young woman who knelt before a large cage. Her gaze was transfixed on the white dog inside the cage. Then, Cher called out a name.
"...Mahina" the name came to Hubb and his memory of the girl perked up and turned to look back and the face… it matched the face Hubb saw now! "Mahina!"
This girl, this girl knew Cher!
The soldiers paused in their talking to look back at Hubb but the detective focused on the girl. Her once calm expression stirred with a furrow of her brow before her eyes slowly opened. Familiarly striking red eyes looked in Hubbs direction but not...at Hubb? Her blank expression made her seem blind, she showed no reaction to her name either.
"...I need to get this to its location" the soldier holding Mahina remarked and with a nod from his comrade he made to walk on.
"W-wait!" Hubb called out, the chains around his ankles rattled as he stepped forward "I know that girl! Where are you taking her! Hey!" but his words weren't heeded and Mahina was carried away even as Hubb yelled after them. He fought against his chains to crane his neck and keep the young girl in his view but a spike of pain to the back on his head sent the man to the floor hard.
"...wait…" he called
Mahina herself was barely aware of the man named Hubb.
Floating in a realm of the now and another, she didn't know where she was anymore. A long, winding corridor? In the arms of a tall, shadowy figure? What did it all mean?
Mahina only faintly heard her name being called but it mattered not, her eyes were growing heavy and her vision was swirling into black.
...Who am I?
What am I?
Why do I exist?
I don't know…
So many questions, so little answers…
Answers only lead to more questions with all the same answers.
Around… and around...and around.
Who am I? What am I? Why do I exist?
I don't know… not anymore.
This setting, this place...it was strange, different.
Bars surrounded the cage she had been thrown into ages ago. The room she was in was a blinding white that agitated her eyes. Ugly, furless, oddly shaped faces stared down at her drawing back when she growled at them but only briefly. They always came back, always drew a bit closer.
These were the creatures her mother warned her about.
Humans
They'd come in the dead of night and set the forest a blaze and after fighting the alpha and taking her out they took her pup.
Miakoda.
She remembered her horror and fear as they carried her away from her bleeding mother. They left the alpha there to burn in the inferno they had created.
Miakoda yelp and cried the whole time hoping beyond hope that someone would find her before it was too late. Maybe her father would hear her of Jacy! Surely he would come running as soon as he heard her howls. But the roar of wild fire drowned it out and before Miakoda knew it, she was being carted away in a cage. The final howls of dying wolves ringing in her ears..
The pup didn't know how long she remained curled up in a corner of that cage before chaos enveloped her again.
It started with a ringing sound, high in pitch and painful to hear. Then, there was a screeching noise a flash of red and an explosion that sent the truck Miakoda was in flipping.
The resulting crash knocked Miakoda out and when she woke up she found herself...here.
Far from home
Far from family
Trapped and surrounded by the enemy.
"Another one?..." one of the ugly humans in all white spoke up approaching Miakoda's cage. They reached out to perhaps touch the pup but her growling quickly made the human hesitate.
"Careful" another human, one who had been sitting nearby since Miakoda woke up, spoke "It might look cute and cuddly but it's feral"
"Feral" the two humans looked at one another for a beat "I highly doubt that, this one is young...it can't be any older than a year at most...it might be weaning from its mother now…"
"Yea, well, that weaning puppy took two fingers from the last idot brave enough to try and touch it" the seated human remarked, an amused chuckle coming from their deep voice "Serves him right, Jerry's always been a brown noser"
"I had wondered why Lord Darcia had suddenly run off like he had…" the second human commented while her company merely shrugged from his seat "Subject 01001101, huh?"
"Just call it Subject M, that's what everyone's doing"
"This is the 13th time he's done this" the human drew her face close to the cage despite getting another warning not to get close. Miakoda pushed herself as far into the corner as she could-trying to look as fierce as she could even as the human before her cage held up a device and blinded the pup with a bright flash. "I heard he even attacked Lady Jagura's troops just to get this one…"
"Nobles" the seated human snorted out "they're all a bunch of weirdos-Lord Darcia's the weirdest of them all"
"They say his house is cursed"
"And you believe that shit? Come on "
"You can't deny it may be true!" this human, this Dr. Degre, persisted "this illness that keeps popping up… this...paradise sickness… it can't just be nothing."
"Whatever" the seated human waved his company off "all I know is i'm here to collect a paycheck just like you"
"That's not only why i'm here… that flower maiden…" Degre muttered to the exasperation of her company.
"Again with the flower maiden? I swear you talk about her more than you do your own daughter"
"Thats...thats not true"
"How is Cher doing anyway?"
"She's doing well. She works for Lord Orkham in Freeze city now"
"Ah, Scientist just like her mother"
"She's getting married soon she told me. His name is Hubb. He's a… detective? I think?..."
"Your husband must be so proud, his son-in-laws going to be a rent-a-cop" there was sarcastic snort.
"Shut up Matt" Degre huffed.
Miakoda tuned out the rest of the humans talking. Now that she was being left alone, the pup let herself wallow in her own self despair.
None of this would have happen is the pack hadn't stopped for the night.
But it had been necessary, that's what her parents said.
The pack was merging with another one. A much bigger pack of white wolves. Their Alpha had pups around the same age as Miakodas litter too. She remembered meeting them once.
There had been one that was very quiet compared to his siblings. Didn't wrestle around while the Omegas tried to entertain the pup so the adults could talk in private.
That was how Miakoda noticed him, he was enthralled by the elders tales of a place meant for wolves and only wolves.
Paradise, they called it.
The pure white pup listened to every word spoken of this place. He only shifted his attention briefly when Miakoda and the others were rowdy enough to bump into him. When their eyes met Miakoda saw such fire in the male's gaze. If there was a lost paradise somewhere out there in this wide world. This male… he'd probably be the idiot that went looking for it.
A fool of a wolf chasing a fool of a dream.
...no matter how tempting the dream was.
That was the last time Miakoda saw that pup or his siblings or even his pack.
There had been plans to merge the next day and relocate up into the mountains away from a growing human threat.
But the humans were faster.
The pack should have never stopped to rest.
The humans came in the night and set Miakoda's home ablaze with fire meant to smoke them out.
How many had perished? Miakoda didn't know. Didn't want to know. Her tiny body was drowning in sorrow at the thought that her whole family was now lost to her.
Her mother, her father, Jacy, Tate, and Ayita. That white pup with the fiery eyes and his whole pack.
Everyone was gone.. Miakoda was alone…
...Not alone…
'What?' Miakoda was stirred from her sorrow and thoughts when a voice seemed to speak out to her from nothing. That was when the pup realized her cage had been moved to another room. The room was bathed in green light much softer than the blinding white from before and her cage door was...open?
Ears perking as she noticed this, Miakoda inched towards her freedom, cautiously sticking her paw out of the cage a few times just in case the humans were trying to trick her.
...Not alone…
That voice again...where was it coming from?
Miakoda would have to brave the outside to find out. The outside...full of humans. But Miakoda wouldn't panic, she would not show them her fear nor would she give them reason to fear her.
Her father had started teaching Miakoda how to cast the illusion not long before the end. He'd always said it would serve her well one day though Miakoda was sure neither of the thought it would be for this…
...Not alone…
The voice called again prompting Miakoda on. The room filled with noise as Miakoda crawled out of the cage and stood on wobbly legs.
"A...a girl?"
"No, that can't be right!"
"Did you see that? The wolf just…"
Miakoda almost regretted stepping out as she to a moment to look at her surroundings. The room was over crowded with humans. Pale, furless, ugly humans. All staring, all gawking, all whispering as if Miakoda couldn't hear them.
"A...amazing" even that human from before, Degre, was here.
She stared awestruck with that weird device of hers drawing closer when Miakoda stared at it "This is...phenomenal...a wolf changing into a human" she inched closer "this would explain their decline in population! They're not going extinct! They're living right under our noses!"
Miakoda stared back passively, almost sorrow filled.
She wasn't a living thing to the humans she was a spectacle and she was alone.
...Not alone…
"..." The voice again. It was growing persistent now, like an invisible person Miakoda could barely feel. It was a ghost of a feeling against the pups face, trailing across her senses until Miakoda suddenly felt herself drowning in the presence of another.
Someone soft, delicate, barely there but there all the same.
Someone with an...overpowering smell.
Miakoda's nose twitched as she took in the nice smell. She turned away from Degre and her off device to follow that lovely scent and the voice that came with it.
...Not alone…
Human legs were hard to walk on, Miakoda wobbled and stumbled as she walked, her bare feet tracking blood behind her as she followed her sense. Not alone. The words formed hesitantly from the pups mouth as she walked and stumbled and walked until...she saw it.
Her.
A sphere hung high over Miakoda's head. Too high for her to reach on her own though she tried because of the sweet smell was coming from within it, because of the girl inside.
Trapped within water, was a girl with her head hung and her eyes shut in sleep. Miakoda was sure of it though, this girl had spoken to her. She was the one to say Miakoda wasn't alone.
"..." the she-wolf opened her mouth to speak though her voice in this form still struggled to come forth. Still, her mouth formed the words whispered to her.
'Not alone'
That was when the girl within the sphere raised her head and rose met sapphire blue.
...you...are not alone…
Miakoda closed her eyes under the girls soft smile. The sensation of a hand ghosting over the she-wolf's fur sent a shiver down Miakoda's spine. Why did this sensation feel so utterly familiar to her? How was it that she knew this sweet voice she was hearing for the first time in her life?
This one is here now, you are not alone.
A name was coming to Miakoda's mind, one that must belong to this girl but suddenly a shadow loomed over the little pup. Her fur prickled at the sudden sensation of a presence behind her.
"My Lord" Degre voiced along with a few other humans watching "please, be careful. The wolf is feral"
Lord?
Miakoda looked over her shoulder and found a man kneeling beside her. Unlike the other humans, this one was dressed all in dark colors and one of his eyes was covered. This must be the Lord Darcia the human Degre spoke of earlier.
He was their...Alpha?
He was the one who spirited Miakoda way.
Had it been him who set the forest a blaze as well?
Darcia raised a hand and Miakoda flinched ready to bare her teeth in preparation for defense. But… the Alpha known as Lord Darcia did not touch her. Instead, he reached towards himself and pulled off the patch on his covered eye.
Imagine Miakoda's surprise when a wolf's eye stared at her.
He was...a wolf?
Curious, Miakoda drew closer. Her mind was trying desperately to see past what must be an illusion. How else would a human have a wolf eye?
"..." Miakoda reached up a hand to touch the skin by Darcia's face and the male smiled affectionately at her despite the blood she smeared across his paler skin. He raised her into his arms.
Not alone
That voice again. Miakoda looked up at the imprisoned girl again and Darcia looked as well. Rose eyes watched Miakoda.
"...can you hear her, little one?" Darcia's deep voice rumbled in the pups ear.
"..." Miakoda,now closer to the sphere thanks to Darcia, reached out and pressed her hand against the glass "...Cheza" her voice finally found her.
Cheza, that was the name coming to her.
"So you can" Darcia hummed "can you tell me what she is saying?"
"..." at first Miakoda didn't answer, she focused on the girl before her and her scent, and the ghost of a hand that stilled caressed her face.
Welcome back…
"Welcome back" Miakoda echoed the words whispered to her senses.
"What?"
"She said…" blue stared into rose as the pretty girl slowly closed her eyes, allowing Miakoda to turn her focus baco to this 'Lord Darcia' "Welcome back"
Darcia chuckle at Miakoda though she, for one, didn't understand what was so funny. He said nothing to her as he pushed brown hair out of her face.
"Get the lab ready. We'll begin test on subject M once her wounds are properly treated"
Test?
"Yes, My Lord" Degre spoke up before turning to bark orders at the other humans around her.
Miakoda never looked away from Darcia or his comforting wolf's eye. There was a smile on his face that drew the pup's curiosity.
"Tell me, little one" Darcia spoke to her, his gaze on her just as curious of her "will you be my key to paradise?"
The white room echoed with screaming.
Though Miakoda hadn't yet gotten too used to having a voice that could be heard by humans it didn't take her long to learn of the power of screaming. It burned her throat to do, strained the feeble vocal cords she'd never used before she was taken but it felt good.
It fueled her fury and gave her a feeling of extra strength as bared her teeth at the humans surrounding her.
There were four of them, one for each of Miakoda's limbs, and they were trying desperately to pin the pup down, to stop her insistent fighting long enough to stab her.
That's right, stab her.
It had seemed so harmless at first when Miakoda was first brought to this colorless room. The cautious and careful humans went about their routine checking the wounds Miakoda had gained from the fire as they had for the past few days. Miakoda had expected once they were done to send her back to her cage but then one appeared with something small and metallic in hand.
Unsure of what it was, Miakoda gave it a casual eye but otherwise did nothing. The human wielding the thing gave off a calm air about them so Miakoda figured it must be another odd way to treat her healing wounds. However than the item was pressed against Miakoda's arm and broke skin with ease. The pain that followed pulled a yelp from the pup and she reacted quickly.
Snarling at the offender, the pup pushed them away from ehr and yanked the offending item out of her arm.
Blood followed the action and that brought the threat level from a calming green to a fluorescent red.
The revolt Miakoda invoked in response had the humans around her scrambling to pin her to the metal table she had once been calming sitting on.
"Hold her down!" the blonde woman from before yelled over Miakoda's screaming "If we accidentally slice an artery trying to inject the IV this will all be pointless!"
"Easier said than done!" the male she was yelling at countered and he spoke the truth. Just to prove his point Miakoda screamed in revolt, yanking her tiny wrist free from his grip and introducing him to her claws. They were small, nothing compared to the daggers that her parents had but when confronted with the soft flesh of a human it was child's play.
The pink flesh bowed to Miakida's force and crimson blood soon followed as the pup clawed four deep lines across her captors face. He yelled in pain instantly backing away to hold his face and freeing Miakoda's hand.
Whirling around to her other restrained hand Miakoda shrieked out digging her claws into the humans hand before leaning over and circling her mouth around one of their fingers. A clenched jaw later and the human's screams of agony echoed the room. The attack was enough to strike fear in the people around for those holding down Miakoda's leg seemed to quickly understand if they wanted to walk away from the unscaved it would be wise to let her go.
Miakoda scrambled onto her hands and knees in a crouch, the closest she could get to her normal form without having to revert back to it. The air was tense as the room of humans watched Miakoda with wide eyes and she in turn watched them with growls and snarls.
These humans, they worked like a pack, a gravely disorganized pack but one all the same. They had a leader, someone giving them commands so if Miakoda took that person out the rest would fall apart for sure.
But who?
"Where is the guard with that damn tranquilizer?!" Miakoda's blue eyes locked on the speaker, it was that blonde woman-the one they called Degre. Miakoda's eyes narrowed, her.
Crouching low Miakoda could feel her tiny frame rumbling with the growl she let out now that her target was found and the look of terror Degre had on her face showed the woman knew she was next. It didn't help that Miakoda didn't break eye contact when she tilted her head to the side and spat out a mouthful of blood and the finger she'd just bitten off someone a moment ago.
Miakoda had her tagert and she was going for it, consequences be damned. She wasn't about to let these humans stab her a second time today. Degre was too frozen with fear to run, perfect, all Miakoda needed to do was readjust her footing a bit and pick a spot to go for.
Mother always said if you wanted a hunt down fast you always, always aim for the throat. Miakoda didn't want to hurt this woman, she wanted to utterly kill her so with teeth bare Miakoda launched herself forward teeth bare and the room echoing with her snarls.
But it seemed, in that instant, someone else knew that the best way to subdue an opponent was to aim for the throat because before Miakoda could circle her teeth around Degre's weak neck and hand had found its way to Miakoda's.
Her snarl quickly became a yelp that was cut short when the hand gripping Miakoda pushed her back choking her before slamming her back onto the metal table loudly. The back of Miakoda's head hit the metal hard sending her vision spiraling and her mind reeling. What the hell?! But the counter didn't stop, Miakoda wheezed out as the hand gripping her put pressure on her throat making breathing hard if not impossible.
Coughing and wheezing, kicking her legs about and thrashing as hard as she could Miakoda reached up to claw at the offending hand but found leather where flesh should be. What met Miakoda's fiery gaze when she opened her eyes gave her pause if only for a moment.
"Lord...Darcia" Degre breathed out the name.
The large, imposing figure of that man who called Miakoda his precious key and the gold wolf's eye that threaten to burn the pup to ash under its power.
Miakoda let out a choked snarl, clawing at the mans gloved hand and thrashing against his might but he made short work of this. A deep growl, deeper than anything Miakoda could make herself, rumbled from the male's throat and though he bared very human teeth his very scent drowned Miakoda in a feeling of dominance that made the pup shiver.
"Stay still" he snarled at Miakoda his grip growing tight when the pup resisted him. She went from clawing had his hand to struggling to pull it off her. "You will stay still" the male growled out "do you understand?" Miakoda whimpered in response. What choice did she have.
Tense silence followed this exchange broken only back Miakoda when the male pinning her loosened his grip enough for her to greedily gasp for air. The humans went back to work, Miakoda yelped loudly when she was stabbed a second time but Darcia and his burning wolf eye stopped the pup from revolting again, all she could do was scream.
And she did, loudly, endlessly.
The thing that stabbed Miakoda was connected to something that she had to watch slowly drop greenish looking liquid down, down, down and finally into her arm.
Miakoda snarled in protest but whimpered when Darcia pushed down on her neck.
"Stay" his command was firm and Miakoda didn't want to test his strength and speed a second time.
That when the sensation cam to Miakoda, this substance...it smelled like that girl-Cheza, it felt like Cheza too and drowned Miakoda in a calming sensation nothing short of pleasant to the pup. Her screaming a defiance peaked before sputtering out as the calming sensation flooded her senses and left her already swirling vision completely useless to the pup.
Her grip on Darcia's hand relented and as the liquid continued to submerge Miakoda in its power the pup fell limp on the metal table, her gaze far off and expression dazed.
What was this… feeling?
Was she...dying?
Miakoda barely felt Darcia let her neck go, not like it mattered, she didn't have the strength to fight anymore. The room was losing its focus and in its place a hazy image was taking shape. That girl… the one floating in the water… she beamed down at Miakoda her voice echoing in the pups ears in a tune...singing?...she was singing…
Letting out a soft sigh, Miakoda found she couldn't fight the power taking her over. Her eyes rolled and she fell into darkness. But just before it took her completely a new voice rang out within the dark.
A deep voice
A dark voice
It spoke to Miakoda with an ominous laugh as she let go of her consciousness
You have returned
I always knew you would