FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Guardians:

Chapter Three: The Unforgiven Ones

Alyx groaned and tried to pull himself to his feet. His blood was still seeping from his wounds; he needed medical treatment fast. He staggered and collapsed back on the floor clutching at his broken ribs. After a few seconds of only his hard breathing he could have sworn he heard Vance's voice. He clawed his way toward the door, and his vision began to swim and he slumped back down going limp.

. . .

Alyx leaned on the table set up on the shooting range, and fired off three shots with his FAL. Two where perfect bull's-eyes the other one was just shy of being a bull's-eye. He shook his head and took the clip off the weapon having used all of his practice rounds. He glanced at Sain who was in the next slot to his right. She had a simple .45 semi automatic pistol and was blasting perfect shot after perfect shot at her target. He shook his head glad she was on his side. She glanced over at him watching her and emptied her clip, before setting the gun down.

"Yes?"

Alyx shrugged,

"Nothing, just admiring your prowess with a pistol." He chuckled, "I'm glad you're my comrade and not an enemy."

Sain shook her head and reloaded the gun before firing another clip off.

"Can you hand me one of my MAC's please?" Alyx picked up the gun put it in her hand and took the pistol, "Thanks." She leveled the gun at her waist and then with an accuracy that was uncanny for hip shots she obliterated the rest of her targets. She packed the MAC up and took the .45 from Alyx and zipped them into her case and prepared to leave.

"I'll see you in the gym later." She hoisted the cases strap over her shoulder, "Bye." She walked out and Alyx watched her leave, ever movement of her wings or tail seemed to mesmerize him. He shook his head, suddenly completely understanding what he was feeling and gathered his rifle up and put it away. If he was to befriend Sain and become her mate, there's no telling what would happen since they were both in a special operations group. He looked at the insignias on the doors to the range, the green symbol of the Guardian Corps. He shook his head amazed the small organization that had started a few years back had grown into what it was now. Small, as it was meant to be, but impressive.

Alyx picked up the case with his rifle in it and carried it out, walking down through the immaculate corridors. He rounded one of the corners and nearly got ran over by Vance.

"Whoa!" Alyx stumbled and nearly fell to avoid running into the taller wolf, "Didn't expect anyone to be down here." He chuckled and regained his balance, before setting his rifle case down, "What are you doing down here where my quarters are?"

Vance shrugged,

"Looking for you actually. I wanted to know if you were ready to go to the gym. I'm gonna beat you're chin-up record today."

Alyx nodded,

"I'll be impressed if you do. I was just on my way; I need to put my rifle up first." He motioned to the case he'd set down, "I'll be there in five minutes."

Vance nodded and turned to walk further down the corridor,

"Alright, I'll see you in a bit. You better be there or I'll tell everyone you're slacking!" He chuckled as he walked farther down the hall.

Alyx shook his head and opened the door to his quarters and walked into the room. It was almost hotel-like with the small bed and cheap looking in tables. He looked around and sighed tossing his rifle onto the much too small bed, before turning to the dresser beside him. He quickly stripped out of his clothing.

He glanced at himself in the mirror while he was nude. He shook his head again as he saw a body that was nearly perfectly toned yet marred with far too many scars, he quickly put a pair of jeans and a t-shirt on and turned back to his gun before stashing it under the bed. He looked on his desk to make sure nothing new had come in. With another deep sigh he turned and walked out of his room to go to the gym.

He walked down the hallway and passed a few other members of The Guardians. He thought back on it, The Guardians was a good group of men and women yet they worked under the Nahlseen Secret Police. He shook his head at the contradiction of the whole situation. He nodded to them and continued on. Being the squad leader was tough, all their lives were dependant upon his ability as a commander, out in the field if he made one mistake he could possibly send them all to their doom. Alyx shivered, he'd never let that happen...never...

Alyx walked into the gym to find three others there, Sain, Vance, and Raurian. He nodded to his three closest comrades and watched Raurian on the treadmill.

"You should really work on some muscle building and not cardio, Slim." He chuckled as the dark blue dragon made a face at the nickname.

"Unlike you, I don't go around using brute force all the time. I use my wits to get out of anything." The dragon turned the speed up a little more, "Besides, like this I'm quicker than most everyone else here." He scoffed, "Aaand furthermore-"

"Okay! Okay! You win Raurian... Jeez..." Alyx rubbed the back of his head before picking up a pair of barbells. He noted Sain bench-pressing immense weights for her build and grinned at Vance's stunned look as he hung on to the chin-up bar, watching Sain.

"Sain. I think you may be over doing it again." He noted softly as she kept going already counting into the fifties.

"Nonsense. I know my limits red scales." She gritted out as she lowered the bar once again, her blue scales were slick with sweat and the muscles on her lithe form were standing out from her scales straining. She put it back up on the holder and sat up wincing, "Okay, maybe not..." She rubbed rolled her shoulders and stood slowly, "Yeah. I overdid it again..."

Vance continued on the chin-up bar,

"How the hell do you do that?" He asked his eyes huge, "You're not muscular... well... Toned, yes; but not muscular enough for that. How much weight was that?" He stared at her waiting for a moment,

Sain shrugged almost carelessly,

"I just do, and besides I'm a dragon." She looked at the bar with the weights on it, "And to answer your other question, I think that's roughly a little less than four hundred pounds right there." She giggled as Vance Gawked, "What? I'm tough, you've gotta be to be a shocktrooper like me." She shrugged her bare shoulders as she was only in some shorts.

Gleets walked in right then and looked at Sain for a moment,

"Damn-it dragon!" He motion at her half nude form, "Why can't you have a bust like us furs? That woulda been awesome to walk in on!" He made a sad face, before Sain smacked him upside the head.

"I'm a reptile of course you pervert!" Then she chuckled, "Us dragons could walk around nude and not show anything off you know."

Gleets shook his head,

"Jerks. I'd totally walk around in my birthday suit all the time if people didn't get offended by it." He made a small unhappy noise and went over to the exercise machine next to Raurian,

"Hey."

Raurian looked at him for a moment running full out now before he replied,

"I'd totally run around in my birthday suit if I wasn't a medic..." He paused for a second still running on the treadmill, "Gotta keep some dignity, you know? ...Besides a nude doctor does not make for comfortable patients."

Sain looked at Vance and Alyx and winked casually walking over to the treadmill. Raurian eyed her for a moment,

"What?"

"This." Sain grinned as she pressed down the emergency stop on the treadmill and Raurian shot forward still running, before he stumbled to a halt.

"Damn you!" He sat up having fallen over, "Is that how you treat a medic!?"

Sain grinned,

"No it's how I treat you." She chuckled at the look that crossed Raurian's face, as he stood back up,

"Fair enough." He shrugged, "I'm through anyways, but just wait I'll pull something on you." He grinned evilly as he walked out of the gym.

Gleets shivered,

"He scares me."

The other three nodded in agreement as Vance got off of the chin-up bar, he grinned at Alyx,

"I beat your record."

Alyx stared at him his mouth slightly open,

"You did not."

"Yup." Vance's smile grew larger, "By twenty-three more reps."

Alyx grimaced,

"Well I'll have to fix that." He said as he grabbed onto the bar and started aiming for two hundred now since the record was one-eighty. "Just you wait wolfie I'll have your record beat so hard." Alyx gritted his teeth not being a fan of chin-ups. Sain watched him for a few more moments before she laid back on the bench she was on now,

"Damn... I overdid it." She sighed as she stretched as much as she could on the small bench.

Vance grinned and nodded, "Me too... Ah well... At least it's not like it's going to kill us."

Alyx dropped off the bar,

"Bah! You win for now Vance, I'll work on that some more later." He rolled his shoulders, "What are you guys doing now that our daily stuff is done?"

Vance shrugged,

"Iunno. I'm probably gonna go work on our machinery that's not one hundred percent."

Alyx nodded,

"Well, have fun with it, I checked everything after that last mission. Number Four needs a oil change, but that's all I found."

"Okay! See you two later!" Vance waved walking out of the room.

Alyx turned around and found Gleets had disappeared silently like he did so often,

"That rabbit is really good at that." He shook his head and looked over at Sain, "So what are you doing later?"

Sain shrugged not getting up or looking at him,

"Nothing. I've got an off day so I'm not going to do anything now."

Alyx nodded and chuckled,

"Am I working you guys too hard?"

Sain shook her head,

"No, no... If anything your really lax about working unless we have a mission. But after that last mission I wonder who the hell that little hawk girl is and what she knows."

"I'm actually going to ask her about that. That's our next mission to retrieve the item she knows about." He paused and shook his head, "If it exists anyway."

Sain nodded,

"I think I'll tag along then."

Alyx nodded,

"Well get a shirt on and we'll go."

Sain stuck her tongue out at him.

"Whatever."

. . .

Alyx sighed as the hummer he and Sain were in roared over the dirt road they were on.

"We should be there in fifteen minutes or so." He glanced over at Sain who was in the passenger seat looking out the window. She nodded slowly after a few moments of silence,

"Hey Alyx?"

"Hmm?" He glanced over at her and noticed the troubled look on her face. Sain sighed and made a small noise in her throat.

"I've been thinking lately."

"About what?"

"Our job." She shifted in her seat and folded her legs under her, "And how many people we kill."

Alyx stiffened a little and looked at her through one eye,

"Yes?"

"Is it right? I mean, we do this for the greater good, but how many of those men and women we've killed have families who'll never see them again after one of us pulls the trigger?" She looked out the window again, "We are soldiers and we've been trained to not feel such things. 'Kill all who resist' that's what they say."

Alyx gripped the steering wheel tighter as Sain continued,

"What are we then? Are we really Guardians or just monsters? Should we kill these people? Can we be forgiven for it?"

Alyx looked down before quickly looking back at the road,

"We fight for the larger number of people who could be killed if we didn't kill instead."

"But is it right to decide who should die and who should live?"

"You can't think like that!" Alyx ground his teeth as Sain looked up at him,

"Then what are we?"

"I don't know!" Alyx snapped before he turned his head and looked out the side window for a moment at a passing pasture, he turned back to the road. "You know how long I've lived Sain?"

She shook her head,

"I'm nearly two-thousand, you can't be much older than me."

Alyx shook his head,

"No, dragons live forever if we aren't killed by something first. I don't' remember any exact date, but I'm roughly forty-thousand years old Sain."

Sain cheeped and stared at him as he continued,

"I've killed at least a couple thousand each year all for the reason of protecting who I love. So how many would that be?" He growled softly, "Yet even though I'm protecting so many, I can't ever atone for the people whose lives I've ruined. I've never felt forgiven after my first kill and I never will feel that way. We are the protectors of the weak, Sain." He shook his head and sighed, "You can't really think about it too much. Thoughts like that make you pause and then more people die. I'm proud of what I am, even if it does make me a monster I'm saving many more than I'm killing."

Sain nodded in the other seat,

"I see."

"Good now let's speak of it no more."

She nodded again as a small gray concrete complex appeared on the horizon before them,

"Is that it?"

"Yeah. That's were we put Craight and Zighz." Alyx nodded and sighed softly as he pulled the Hummer into one of the cargo bays.

They both got out and the Hummer powered down. Alyx nodded to the pair of human guards outside the door and showed his ID, they moved aside and he motioned Sain with him.

"This way."

They passed by several other guards and countless other security devices before they came to a door that looked much like a hotel room door. Alyx knocked and then opened it waving Sain inside with him. Zighz was sitting next to the bed that Craight was laying on, a doctor was checking over Craight's bullet wounds before he looked up,

"You shouldn't be here. He needs rest."

Alyx nodded to the dog,

"I know. I'm only here to talk to her," He nodded at Zighz who looked up her eyes widening,

"Me?"

Alyx looked at the hawk critically,

"Yes, you. Come with us please." He turned and led the dragoness and hawk out of the room. He turned left and took them to an upper level in a room, which looked like a corporate meeting room. Alyx motioned for Zighz to sit opposite of him Sain sat next to Alyx and relaxed into the chair. Zighz looked around,

"What is this about?" She asked her voice bewildered.

Alyx steepled his fingers and looked over them at her and opened his mouth to speak. A low purring was heard from the chair Sain had melted into. Alyx stared over at her, she was leaning back her eyes closed. She opened them after a second,

"What? These things are comfortable..." She stared back at Alyx who shook his head before continuing what he was about to say.

"Zighz, you know about a military project of the Arcadians. Adamos, I believe is what they call it."

The hawk's eyes widened for a split second,

"I have no id-"

"Don't play dumb with me please." Alyx interrupted her, "I dislike using violence as it is, but don't think I won't use it to get this information." He watched her closely as she fidgeted under his gaze, "Besides, you have no reason to withhold the information. The Arcadians imprisoned you and were going to kill you with their..." He paused and searched for the word, "...inhumane methods. Me and my team rescued you from certain demise." The hawk looked away, "Why so shy?" Alyx asked softly

Zighz sighed softly,

"I don't want anyone to know about those projects... Especially not the Nahlsians." Alyx snorted and Sain jerked upright. The dragoness looked at her through narrowed eyes,

"We are not Nahlsians!" The dragoness growled.

Alyx nodded,

"She's Welsh. Only one in our crew is actually full-blooded Nahlsian."

Zighz looked at the two dragons,

"If she's Welsh what are you?"

Alyx stiffened and sighed,

"Most say nothing short of a monster."

Both of the females stared at him for a moment before Sain looked away and made a small-disgruntled noise in her throat, Alyx looked at the two of them and narrowed his eyes briefly.

"It mostly depends on who you ask. I cannot remember where I'm from. Back to the question. We want to know everything you know about the Adamos."

Zighz looked at Alyx warily,

"What I know is how to build it... But nobody should know how. Nobody does know save me."

Alyx made an impatient gesture,

"Yes, yes I know that much. But what is it?"

Zighz shivered,

"It's a doomsday device, to bring civilization as we know it to an end."