I'm sorry for not updating in a whole week, I've been feeling ill. I wrote this in parts while ill so it might be pretty messy. Hope you guys enjoy it still.

Characters from chapter 11:

Bulwark: Black and white tom, A Perfected. Part of the Bastion Class.

Chapter 12: Spark

Andratas

The cinders of the campfire were all but gone by morning, all that remained were a few dancing sparks of embers. We had slept in by dusk and woke up the next morning. We were all too tired to keep watch but despite that, we were all on constant alert while we slumbered. The rising sun was quick to blind our tender eyes. The blur of yesterday, the rush we had, was all but gone.

"What's the plan now?" Melody looked at me from across the now burnt out campfire, the dawn light scattering into millions of spots on the ground as it tore through the canopy, "We can't just go back to the slums…"

I sighed, looking away from the stares of the group. They wanted answers. I led them here. Yet I had none, "Honestly, I don't know. I didn't expect that much attention, I wanted the operation to be sneaky but I failed. I'm sorry everyone…"

"It's ok," Emilia smiled, her eyes glinting with passion, "You've already done a lot."

The others nodded, they didn't expect too much from me. They didn't want to put that much burden on me. Seeing their loyalty and trust in me, it brought a tear to my eyes. My heart warmed at such.

"Oh, quite the warm embrace! How I love drama!"

The sudden stiff voice behind me, within the thicket of trees. I could recognise it everywhere by now. A Perfected! (Italics, remove in post-production, tag.)

I swung my head around towards the voice as it laughed from the undergrowth, above in the canopies, standing on twigs and right on me. It was everywhere. Its voice. No… His…

"Bulwark…"

I looked back and Emilia glaring at the trees, stern. This time, she was not afraid. Not as weak… She knew who this was.

"My, my Emi, you were always the charmer!"

The leaves from above gave way as the massive shadow of the tom landed with a great thud. Dirt, dust and gravel sprayed up against our faces, blinding us. I glanced back at Shelly and Mink. They understood and ran fast. I was afraid the new Perfected would strike them but he didn't look interested in them. Glancing lazily at them once, shrugging his shoulders.

He glanced at Melody who was hiding behind Schion once again, his broad shoulders covering most of her apart from her fearful eyes. He smiled, "Also, Melody."

He glanced back at Emilia and I, retaining his smile, "Now, now. I wasn't going to go after you, after all, that would be against orders, and well… We know how that went," The black and white tom glared at Emilia, not malice in his eyes like prior Perfected, but with a glint of vengeance. He had other objectives other than just to strike and kill.

Emilia glared back, crouching into a defensive position. She was still weakened by her repairs and damages yet she held high and steadfast. She was determined to defend us…

"Yes, I truly didn't want to go after you, but…" He paused, smiling with enthusiasm, "Let's just say… A little birdie gave you away."

Emilia's face dropped, she stared around her, her face contorting into a variety of reminiscence. She was remembering a small detail, something minor that struck out…

"The Wasps… You tracked us…" She murmured under her voice, loud enough so only he and I could hear, "Damn it I forgot…"

"Yes! And if not for your… Ingenious," His eyes flared in compliment, "I wouldn't have come after you. But you disabled your tracker, thus…"

He wiped his smile off his face as he flashed his unsheathed claws, glinting against the scattering sun rays from the canopy above, his face masked by a now thorny helm, "It is my duty to keep it so…"

He looked at our stiff faces, a hint of terror and readiness. We were prepared to fight, all of us. I looked back at the group, we weren't in the best condition, but we could overwhelm one of them can't we not? Only Emilia looked unsure, glaring at her opposition. She glanced back at us, she too, filled with terror visible on her face. She didn't think we could beat him.

His laugh reignited at our expressions, he waved his paws at us exasperatedly, like he could not believe our faces, "Oh dear, don't worry! I won't kill you! I won't even kill Emilia! I'll just bring in Emilia and fix her, nothing too bad. Of course, I'll need Emilia. But I will vouch for you! You'll go free, no crimes, no punishment. Just leave."

It was tempting. Leaving her, going back to our original lives… But I remembered last night, the setting sun, the promise I made. I wasn't going to leave her… Emilia had other plans, however. She glanced back at us, signalling us to leave her, she would fight and if not… She would go. She wanted us to live good lives. But we all knew, we all exchanged glances. We knew there would be no more ordinary lives. We had all chosen a different path and the Sirens would get us if we left now. Either way, we would end up in the grasps of the Sirens. It only depended on who was with us.

"No."

My voice rang loud and clear. It embodied all our spirits, all our internal voices. We didn't want her gone. She was part of us. The two Perfected looked at us, surprised. But Bulwark just shrugged, "Well if that's what you want…"

He pointed his clawgun at us, a barrel strapped on from his shoulder down to his paws, "I will take all your lives!"

We flinched, covering our faces with a paw. But before he could shoot, Emilia fired a missile down at the ground in front of him, causing a light dust storm to arise, covering his eyes and senses. She looked at us and ran, signalling us to do the same. Bulwark growled firing blindly and swiping in front of us. But he couldn't see and his shots were off target. One grazed me lightly, causing a light bleed, but I kept running.

From behind us, as the dust cloud dissipated, an angered tom yowled out at us as we ran, "You can't hide, you can't run forever! I will find you!"

Despite his threats, we were all solemnly bound now. We will keep together, stay together. We were all fugitives now anyways, no promises by the Sirens or the Perfected will keep us safe now. We were all wanted, dead or alive… Preferably dead.

We were out of breath, we had ran for hours now. We had met up with Mink and Shelly down the line and continued to run. On the way Emilia explained we had to keep running, to throw the Wasps off our track. We didn't ask, we just followed knowing that if we stopped, whatever Emilia was afraid of would catch up. They would find us, they would follow us.

It was easier for her. She had unlimited energy, sure she was damaged but that only slowed her down to our speed. We needed to stop. The sun was already setting and soon dusk would be upon us. We had to set up a camp of some sorts. Still, Emilia insisted we keep moving. It would be better than getting caught.

For now, we were walking, catching up on air. My sides were in pain, my paws were aching. I knew from the other's expressions on their faces that they were in the same ordeal.

"What are the Wasps anyways?"

Schion had spat out the question, he was tired, the first time I have ever seen him like such. We were safe for now, or at least Emilia had pointed out such. We knew we were never going to be safe forever.

Emilia turned around onto him, stopping us, looking around us and flickering her ears, sensing if they were being watched or tracked, "I guess I should explain huh. Well we're safe for now anyways. We should rest. I'll tell you after we set up camp."

The sun soon sank below the horizon, below the Resting Peace of the Sun. The radiating yellow and orange rang out in streaks across the sky as dusk and darkness soon filled the once radiant sun and sky. The billowing smoke of our campfire crept up high, the night sky disguising it and with that, our location.

We were huddling around the fire, trying to keep warm. Nights in the woods and the general outskirts of the city were freezing. Still we managed to absorb the radiating heat of the fire filling us with relief.

Shelly was already asleep. She was young, too young for long runs. Yet she had complied with Emilia, continuing her sprint with no complaint for the entire duration. I was quite proud of her resilience, after all she had been through…

"So, you want to know…"

Emilia was staring down at her paws, the hole through her body had been mostly healed. She looked better, fitter. Yet she was sad. Melancholy laced her eyes, a sense of heartbreak radiated from her within her. The truth, the secrets she held were strong. She told me a lot, but even that much was little compared to what burdened her.

We were gathered around staring at her, ready to hear her story, "I guess the first thing you need to know of are the Wing Laws."

She smiled sadly as if it was physically hurting her to speak, "It was highly secretive, basically propaganda. How do you think they managed to sway swathes of the population to accept the Sirens rule and Perfected? The populace would not. But from bribing to lying… They managed. They told everyone that it was for them. That we were for them. What lies…"

She growled, swiping at the air, "My creator, Vuella," She stared at me giving me a blink, I nodded back at her, "She… She didn't like them. That they hid the truth. That we weren't to protect, that we weren't to serve. We were to be the future of cats…"

They gasped, surprised. I was equally as dumbstruck, I knew the Sirens pursued the Perfected vigorously, but it was always to keep them as toy, servants… Right? Hearing her statement, the truth, it was something else. The Sirens were not going to stop at eradicating imperfects or making mass amounts of Perfected. They wanted everyone, and no one, to be Perfected…

"But how would they survive?" Melody asked, dumbfounded by this finding, "I mean if they used that logic, if they lied like that, how would they still live on if everyone, no, thing was to be Perfected?"

Emilia blinked, looking down, staring at her paws as a low illumination glowed from within her chest, "You don't know how we are created, but we do," She explained stabbing at her chest, "We are created with these materials called Core Hexes. They can be used to store the energy and data of us. But most importantly…"

She glanced back up hard, staring straight at us, her eyes serious and filled with resolve, "They are capable of life, artificial intelligence and power."

She looked at our awestruck faces, "The Sirens will use these Hexes, they will empower themselves, Perfect themselves. They will become one of us yet maintain their integrity. For while we exist, we are merely husks with intelligence and the ability to listen. They have something we don't have… And, I'm not sure what that is…"

Her face tilted back down, a tear rolled off her face. She was weakened by these facts. The statements she had given only served to remind her, she was not organic. She did not have integrity like us.

"Don't be daft!"

Melody's sudden high pitched screech could have signalled to all the Sirens of our location yet she continued, "Of course you're like us! It doesn't matter if you were born or created, have a soul or not! As long as you can feel, you are like us!"

Emilia looked up unsure at her statement but before she could utter a response, Schion stood up, "She's right. You're not like the others. You know why I, no, we, hated the Perfected? It was because they could not feel what they were doing, they had no emotion towards the actions, the atrocities they committed against us. They didn't feel it, they just did as they were commanded. But you, you are different, you felt what you were doing, you judged what you were doing. You knew what was right and what was wrong. And that makes you better than them, not equal to them, better."

She was still hesitant, weak. She was unwilling to accept these compliments after eons of being told she wasn't as good as them. But she was a Perfected, she was to be better than them, the best. She looked at me, for my final confirmation. I nodded.

"You aren't like them, you are better. Even when you know you shouldn't, you do. You may have been commanded by your creator and perhaps your creator was the one who had goodwill… But… You were the one who accepted it, she gave you the ability to decline, but you accepted it. You knew what was good, you knew what to do. You are like us, one and the same."

"Thank you!" She smiled sadly, tears rolling down her face. However this time, it wasn't the condescending statements by the Sirens that brought her to this, it was our uplifting truths…

A spark sounded in my ear, a shattering screech. I braced my ears, cringing and flinching. It was only now did I realise I still had my earpiece on, Hello? Hello?

A/N: Fun fact: Melody's name is a play on 'my lady' and comes from the common tongue. Her father's name, Goerin comes from the Ancient or Shumarian tongue of South Shumaria. His name means Grasp. Similarly Andratas and Schion's names are from Shumarian dialect as well. It is mandatory for all cats to learn both tongues. And yes I know I didn't touch on the Wasps and those stuff a lot, but don't worry, they'll be touched on next chapter. Again sorry for not uploading. But that's it. Cya next time.

PS: I might make some sort of tech page which will detail all the fancy techs and stuff used. So yeah.