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Integration

Part Twelve

Captain Duntay stood at the end of second platoon's room. Kira watched as the viliti listened to Lieutenant Fahne Kultak describe Maduk's prodding into the relationship between her and her charge, Sergeant Russell Dolby. Kira was quick to send him a message of what Maduk had done, and the officer came as soon as he could to see if he could remedy this. He was trying to better understand what the civilian was trying to do, by getting the stories from the other guardians. The lupari also got a sense that he was struggling to calm himself down. She saw a subtle twitch in the captain's eyes, his long ears were bent halfway backwards, and one of his booted paws tapped the floor in a, to her, obvious sign of viliti aggression. Otherwise, the officer appeared totally calm as he listened with his arms folded behind his back and a straight face. It was a small reassurance to see the officer cared about this matter so much.

Kira's ears pivoted towards the humans gathered on the walkway just outside their quarters. They were leaning along the railing, watching and listening to the exchange. Their anger was a lot more obvious, as she heard their little voices chatter. Her translator ignored it as background voices, but Kira's English lessons meant she could pick out bits and pieces of grumbled threats about what they'd do to Maduk for 'screwing' their medic. The said medic, her charge, was standing in the middle of them, with one human giving him a reassuring pat on the back, as he looked down at the ground far below, obviously glum as the gravity of the situation started catching up to him.

Behind the sergeant, much of the rest of the platoon was watching as well, and they did little to hide their frustration with the situation. Their own bond with Dylan wasn't as strong as the humans', who all found camaraderie from being together in such an incredible situation as joining this literally oversized military. However, they all knew this affected their sergeant, who cared much for her charge and his recovery, and there was the simple fact this civilian was tampering with the well-being of one of their own, a medic even. A soldier in Dylan's situation should be allowed to embrace what helped him. Instead, he was being torn away from it and possibly even shoved into something that could make things worse. It made it personal, regardless of the level of actual personal connection.

Fahne was describing her talk with Maduk, who was investigating into the complete lack of personal contact between her and her charge. It was absurd to Kira, as if there was no right way with that little hukar. Most of the guardians and charges lacked genuine affectionate contact in their relationships, yet he still looked at them with suspicion, while accusing her of being potentially abusive for having too much with Dylan. Duntay quietly listened until the arkatian finally ended her annoyed rant. The viliti flicked one of his enormous, tall ears. “I understand, but you must understand that the human's investigation into all of you is his job, and he is merely doing what he is supposed to do." He allowed his gaze to wander over the humans, then towards Kira, his brow furrowed with concern. “However, he is blatantly failing to consider the extent of the relationship between Sergeant Rottjir and Private Maddock. I do not have the power to directly override his decision; however I will attempt to persuade him otherwise myself. Failing that, I will be able to petition against this decision, citing medical reasons. I believe that will work. I shall start the process tonight, and speak to him as soon as I see him."

"Uh, captain! Sir!" One of the humans shouted in Common. Kira recognized his voice as Corporal Freimann's, and the captain's gaze turned and scanned the humans, before focusing on one waving at him, with his tall ears craning toward the small man. "The schweinhund said to me that..." He paused, trying to remember how to say the next few words. "Ah... he might visit me to talk about my pairing more. He might be coming fast, if true."

"Fast?" Duntay asked. "Do you mean 'soon?'"

"Yes! Soon. Soon."

Duntay nodded once at the human. "Very well. I will wait here to see if he will arrive. Better to speak to him in person than tomorrow night." The captain approached a cot, asked its owner if he could sit on it, then sat down and started working on a tablet yutri he pulled from his bag. Kira glanced anxiously around the room at some of the other lupari. As well as the viliti was hiding it, most of the lupari could sense Duntay's fury from just his scent alone.

The thumping sounds of heavy footsteps, claws clicking on the floor, and a quick sniff told Kira that Yirshan was approaching behind her. "He's going to bare some teeth at that mite," the arkatian said as she stopped next to Kira, looming over her, the lupari only coming to breast height.

Kira scoffed and shook her head, turning to face her friend. "What? Not Duntay."

"I would."

"You're not Duntay. He's too calm."

Yirshan snorted and fluttered one wing. "Please, I bet it's just a mask. I think he's angry. You can tell, can't you?"

The lupari looked at Duntay again, then back up at the other sergeant. "He's furious, that's obvious. But he's not going to let it out like that. He's too calm and professional for that."

Yirshan looked down at her with a wide, fang filled grin. "Trust me, he will. If he confronts Maduk here, he's going for intimidation."

Kira frowned and her eyes flicked downward uncertainly. "That doesn't sound like something a headbrusher would do. And I think that could make things worse."

The arkatian shrugged her wings. "We'll find out if the hukar comes."

The lupari flicked her ear in agreement. Her attention wandered over to the humans lining the small walkway. She focused on her charge, who looked up when he felt her gaze on him. She smiled softly, her ears folding halfway and her eyes glinting with her best 'puppy' look, as the humans called it. Several of the humans leaned forward over the railing to look at her just like Dylan, and a round of cooing 'awwws' swept them. The lupari rolled her eyes when the chatter about Maduk shifted to teasing about the 'doughy' sergeant and her medic lover.

Kira left Yirshan's side and padded over to the assembled humans. She expected them to fall silent when she stopped before them, her immense height looming high above them, with the walkway only at the base of her chest. She stood tall with her face impassive, not letting them know what she actually thought of their teasing. They didn't fall for it as they chuckled between them, until Private Isidoro Mendez said up to her, "Hey, when are you two going to get to third base?" in his curiously accented English.

The lupari's head canted as most of them started laughing, while Dylan ducked his head, his cheeks tinging with a blush. "I suppose when I carry him there." Some of the laughter paused for a brief moment, and a few of them opened their mouths with gaping grins. They suddenly broke out into even louder laughter, complete with hoots and whistles. Dylan looked up at her incredulously.

Isidoro clasped the medic on the back, his face red from his laughter. "It was nice knowing you, Spade," he said.

"Take pictures!" another hollered over the group.

"Cody says he'd like to switch with you!" one on the end shouted down the line.

"Get bent!" Cody snapped, right next to Dylan, looking around for who said that.

Kira was ginning with amusement now. She wasn't stupid. She'd just walked into some sort of gag about sex. "Oh, Cody, you would? Aren't you lucky, we are switching. But I think Dylan would be upset if you got to his third base."

The fading laughter returned with an uproar and the lupari's tail started to wag with delight when Dylan finally cracked, starting to laugh with the rest of them. A quick look behind her at the rest of the barracks showed much of the platoon curiously watching, wondering what was so funny. Duntay was even watching the exchange, and Kira caught the approving look thrown her way from the officer. "Alright," Kira said to the humans. "End that there before Cody starts feeling feisty." She put a stern tone to her voice, which quickly calmed them down and silenced any more crude comments. Satisfied, she raised her hand in front of the catwalk, directly in front of Dylan, and presented her thumb to him. He looked up at her, then reached out and gave her furry digit several slow strokes.

The other humans watched the exchange with a mix of curiosity and even anger. Corporal Dapeng Quyang, who wasn't even among those laughing, said, “I say we hang Maduk by his feet above a ralai's bed."

“Is that racist?" Corporal Sefan Beich asked. “Or is that really a cat thing?"

Kira covered her muzzle with her hand, not trusting herself to hide her teeth as she laughed with the humans. The ralai certainly did have an adoration for playing with hanging objects. "As fun as that would-" Kira was cut off by the sound of the room's door sliding open, and the heavy, thumping footfalls of a mech walking into the room. Her ears swiveled around to the sound of it before she turned her head to see who it was.

Sergeant Mitchell's mech walked into the room, Maduk's escort, stopped in front of Captain Duntay, and snapped out a salute, with the machine's arm cross over its chest. The room fell silent, all eyes focused toward the front of the room. The viliti, still seated on the cot looked up at the mech's head, then lower down to its chest. He slowly got to his paws, still looking at the chest, where he was almost eye level, then crossed his own arm over his chest, returning the salute. "I would like to speak with Molayoninuoluwa Obasi, sergeant."

"Yes?" Maduk's responded over the speakers, loud and strong compared to hearing a human's small voice in person. "What can I do for you, captain?"

Duntay bowed his head slightly, and brought his attention back to the mech's head. "We have spoken at length of Private Maddock already. However, I must remind you that I am observing his psychological recovery. I say observing, because I have come to understand that Sergeant Rottjir is helping him far better than I could hope to." He looked away to nod toward Dylan, who was listening intently on the walkway, then at Kira. "They make a better pairing than many of the most optimistic projections for this program. It is of my professional opinion that separating this pair will harm Maddock far more than any perceptions of mistreatment you believe there to be. I have not observed any form of mistreatment, and Dylan's rate of improvement is very impressive, if highly unusual. For the sake of a man desperately in need of a friend, I ask that you please rescind your decision to separate Sergeant Rottjir and Private Maddock."

"Apologies, captain," Maduk said, “but this uncanny development between them is a warning sign in my experience. My decision stays to test the matter."

"Please," Duntay said, allowing a smile to cross his muzzle, and waved over to the transfer pad. "Let us speak of this matter face to face."

The response from the mech was slow to come, creating an awkward silence, and Kira thought Maduk was speaking to Mitchell about the matter. Finally, he warily answered, "I do not mind speaking from within the machine."

Duntay's response was quick, almost a snap even as he still smiled at the mech, "Sergeant Mitchell, drop Mister Obasi off at the transfer pad and take a smoke break."

"Yes sir!" Mitchell's voice boomed from of the mech impassively, but Kira knew the senior sergeant would understand what was happening. Kira understood as well, and she didn't like where this could be heading. Even so, the lupari kept her silence.

The machine tromped over to the transfer pad, everyone watching its movements as if their heads were on swivels. The humans near the pad backed away from it as the, to them, tremendous machine came close and turned in place. It lowered itself downward, its legs folding into a squatting position intended for docking as well as storage. The chest plate opened with a slight hiss, and then bent outward to form its own small transfer pad, the deck. From Kira's place next to the catwalk, she could see inside of the mech's cockpit. Mitchell was sitting in the pilot's chair, briefly disconnected from his neural uplink to look back at Maduk, sitting in one of the two passenger seats tucked into a small space just behind the pilot's chair.

Maduk, however, appeared very anxious as he gripped the bars on either side of his seat, and even from this distance Kira could smell the sweat coming from him. The civilian didn't move to get up, he hadn't even unbuckled himself. Instead he stared outside the mech, and eventually he looked toward Kira. The lupari couldn't read his tiny face from this distance, nor did she really care to. She didn't need to see his face to know he was terrified. He knew what was happening. He had to confront someone many times larger than him, who was quite upset with one of his decisions.

Kira expected Maduk to simply have his escort take him out of the barracks, but the civilian, much to his credit, after only a few seconds of hesitation, unbuckled his restraints. He paused, likely trying to hide away any signs of his anxiety, but Kira could smell it as if it were rolling off of him, much like Dylan during his most frightful times. She wanted to be pleased over this, but just couldn't. She resented the human for his meddling, but seeing him so afraid over this, facing giants, made the fur on her tail stand on edge. This wasn't how it was supposed to be, they shouldn't be made to be afraid of speaking to their larger fellows.

Maduk walked out of the cockpit, onto the deck, and stepped down onto the transfer pad. He walked onto the center, away from the unrailed edges, and turned to look up at Duntay as the officer silently approached. The transfer pad came to around the middle of his chest, as most viliti were shorter than lupari like Kira. However, it was still an immense height for the human, who saw a massive face taking up much of his view, and the tall height of the captain's ears likely made him appear even larger. Duntay nodded to Mitchell, and Maduk warily watched the mech as the deck closed and sealed the machine. It stood up, backed away, and carelessly marched out of the room, leaving Maduk without his escort. Certainly he could call him back, but it appeared to be a game of intimidation, and the human was standing his ground, refusing to show his fear by demanding his escort to remain.

"Now," Duntay started, still smiling, though now his large front teeth were far closer than most humans were comfortable with. "Please explain this warning sign of yours."

Maduk held his hands behind his back, fingers laced together, and looked up at Duntay with his best look of stoicism. "I would like to discuss this matter in private."

Duntay shook his head. "Your contract for your position states you must be open and clear with your decisions. This change concerns Maddock, Rottjir, and even the rest of their platoon, as they fear it will ruin all that has been done."

Maduk scoffed. "If this small change unravels his progress, then perhaps he should not be here."

Duntay's smiled vanished into a flat, mildly agitated look. "Small. I won't assume you are stupid." Kira noticed a bite in the way he said stupid. Some of that masked anger lashed out. "I know your work requires a lot of assessment. I know you are well aware of his situation. However, this is in no way a small change. You appear to fail to grasp the scope of it. You are risking this man's health. Over what? Abuse? You did not answer the question. What is this warning sign?"

The civilian shook his head and held up his hand. Kira noticed his anxiety appeared to be going down, as if the challenge to his decision actually emboldened him. "No, not abuse, but a risk that it may happen. It is a matter of the quickness of how close he has become with his guardian, when he arrived here with an incredible fear of her. Tell me, captain, how many times have you seen someone go from paralyzed fear to cuddling the object of their fear in a month-" he paused, hastily correcting himself from month to the UTO's standard, "Ah, half of a quarter. Is that not unusual to you?"

"Yes," Duntay answered, fully understanding the strangeness of it. It did come up in discussions with Dylan and Kira often enough. "But it is helping him. His recovery should come first. I already made the mistake of attempting something like this. I regret it. I did not fully see how much his guardian benefited him and his healing."

"My goal here, captain, is not to help him to recover, but to ensure he is not vulnerable to abuse."

"Abuse!" the viliti said incredulously. "I do not think that word means what you think it means." Kira's ears flicked at the curious sound of a few of the humans snorting and laughing amongst themselves. "I have monitored Dylan and Kira's interactions myself, and I have seen absolutely no signs of abuse."

"Don't be foolish," Maduk calmly said. "You know what work I must do. Abuse of trust is something that must be rooted out just like physical abuse." He gestured in Kira's direction with a wave of his hand. "What if she wished to use his trust in her and, say, play one of those predatory games the predatory species tend to enjoy? Private Maddock may be so fixated on pleasing his protector, that he agrees, and he may have one of his episodes from it."

Kira choked a growl in her throat, snuffling it out before it rose up. She thought about such things when she first learned about the experiences of a close guardian and charge pair, but since then she had all but forgotten about such things. Dylan's recovery was absolute priority. She would never do something so foolish with him. At least not unless she was completely certain he would truly be alright with it.

"Kira would never do such a thing," Duntay said, voicing Kira's thought. "And I know Dylan would have the willpower to decline anything that may harm him like that."

"If he is so strong of will, then this change will not be a problem for him."

Duntay shook his head with disappointment. "For someone meant to protect humans from harm from their guardians, I find it painfully ironic that you are trying to break apart a pairing where the human benefits so much. It is simply absurd you are willing to harm someone over such a distant possibility, that it is practically impossible to happen. I hope you are ready for the repercussions from this."

Maduk shrugged. "You will appeal, I am sure. If it succeeds, then good for you."

"Not that." Duntay looked over and past Maduk at the humans along the walkway. "You are tampering with a military unit. I suspect the humans may insult you, degrade you, and perhaps threaten violence against you." He looked back at the rest of the platoon, still watching and listening to the exchange. "As for the non-humans... it is very peculiar of you to antagonize those so much larger than your-"

Kira let out a sharp bark, earning both of their attentions, and stepped forward, standing on one side of the pad. "Captain, sir!" she said. "I must request that you refrain from threatening this man with any size oriented threats. You know as well as I do that stature does not dictate what he can and cannot do." The lupari's face was perfectly straight, though her tail stuck out straight behind her with the worry of addressing an officer like this.

The lupari's tail subsequently wagged at the tip when Duntay gave her an approving smile while Maduk was distracted with looking up at her. She glanced down at the human, and felt mildly annoyed that he looked so relieved that the sergeant intervened for him. She didn't do this because she liked him, but because it was the right thing to do. Duntay coughed gently, grabbing both of their attentions again, and backed away from the pad. "Apologies. You are correct, Sergeant Rottjir. I cannot help but get defensive for my patient." The viliti bowed his head deeply in front of Maduk, his huge ears almost at risk of falling down and flopping onto the pad. "Forgive me."

Maduk straightened up and adjusted his tie. "My decision remains. Make your appeal, captain. Now, excuse me. I must speak with some of the charges. Regardless of any threats."

The human turned without another word, and marched off of the pad. Duntay slowly lifted his head, watching him go. As Maduk took several of the humans and vanished into the barracks, Duntay gave Kira a furious look, a rage in his brown eyes that she'd never thought she'd see from him. "Kira and Sergeant Kultak, please follow me." The viliti turned on his paw and calmly padded out of the room with his hands folded behind his back, turning to head out of the building.

Kira hastily grabbed her boots from under her bed, expecting it to be raining outside by now. Once she got them on, the lupari fell into step next to Yirshan, as they followed Duntay out into the hall. Yirshan looked like she wanted to gloat about being right about the officer attempting intimidation, but remained completely quiet. It didn't take a lupari to tell that Duntay was simmering with anger at this point.

The captain led them both outside of the barracks and into the cool air of the night. As expected, it had started to rain while they were inside, and it quickly got to work soaking into Kira's fur, but Duntay showed no care for it as he walked under the lights outside the building, then onward down the path. Both sergeants trailed after him towards a large, red barked tree with gnarled old branches and dense green leaves, one of the five orlensika trees the neishor kept on their large bases as a traditional belief of protection. There were no lights around the tree and it took Kira's eyes some time to adapt to the darkness. But, even without her low light vision she saw the silhouette of what had to be Mitchell's mech, judging by the tiny red cherry of a cigarette glowing near the chest of the tall form, standing under the branches of the tree.

By the time they all stepped under the tree, Kira's low light vision could see Mitchell with his legs hanging over the edge of his mech's deck and the acrid stench of his cigarette burned at her nostrils. The machine's hand was held flat directly above him, sheltering him from what little rainfall made it through the dense leaves of the tree. He looked up at the trio, took another drag of his cigarette, and then flicked the ashes off to the ground. Before he could bring it back to his mouth for another pull, Duntay suddenly snapped, "Put that out, sergeant. The stench makes my ears shiver." Mitchell said nothing while he snuffed the cigarette out on an ashtray next to him. “Thank you. Now, please leave us, if you would." Mitchell squinted at him and pulled himself up to return to his mech, but Duntay held up his hand, stopping him. “Actually, stay. It doesn't hurt for you to be here for this. The stars know you stopped me from making this mistake in the first place."

“Why did you bring us out here, sir?" Kira asked as Mitchell sat back down.

Duntay took a long, deep breath in through his nose. “To discuss what we will do now. That, and I do not wish to even be in the same building with that human." He looked out from under the tree's branches and towards the darek, raincloud filled sky. “And, call me old fashioned, but I wish for the reassurances of the stars."

“For what?" Yirshan asked.

Duntay's ears wobbled as he returned his attention to them. “For what I may have to do, if this doesn't work." He waved his hand dismissively and returned to the subject at hand. “Now, regarding the swap, would seeing me tomorrow morning at ten be acceptable?"

Kira furrowed her brow and canted her head. “Shouldn't Dylan be here for this?"

One of Duntay's enormous ears flicked. “He should, but I fear that would earn Maduk's attention, if we took him with us. Regardless, this is merely a small talk, and perhaps more to help me maintain my wits by speaking with reasonable sorts."

“Your… wits?" Mitchell asked, confusion lacing his voice.

Duntay regarded the human with a flat look, then ignored the question entirely and turned to the other two sergeants. “Again, will tomorrow morning be acceptable? We shall spend the day making Dylan comfortable with Yirshan."

Yirshan grumbled in annoyance. "So I need to waste the rest of my weekend with training? You know, it's called the weekend for a reason."

"If you wish to call it that," Duntay said. "But I see it more as looking out for one of your platoon's medics."

The arkatian's ears folded and her eyes downcast. "Is he really so bad he needs to get used to me?" There was obvious shame, but there was genuine worry in her voice as well.

Kira answered for the officer. "Truthfully, I do not think so. If the pressure of having Maduk watching for one of his episodes wasn't there, I think he would be fine. But Maduk will be watching, and we should not take the risk of him locking up, or being terrified right in front of him."

"Exactly," Duntay said. "He is laying bait for a negative reaction. I do not know what kind of point he is trying to prove, but if he uses Dylan breaking down from being with Sergeant Kultak as a way to separate him from Kira, entirely, then I fear Dylan's condition will suffer a significant relapse."

Mitchell rapped his knuckles on the mech's deck, earning the group's attention through the sounds of the rainfall. "Think about that for a moment, captain. Don't get me wrong, I think Maduk is being a massive dickhead, but if Dylan so badly needs Kira, then that is a problem. I think it might be better to hope Dylan can show us he can work with other non-humans. Not just Kira."

Duntay clattered his front teeth together in thought. "I did have some plans to start trying to get Dylan to interact more with other guardians, with Kira present of course, but I fear this may be too soon."

"Why's that?" Kira asked. "He's gotten so comfortable with me. He can't get much more comfortable."

"That's the point," Duntay said. "I suspect he may be too fixated on your company. It might help explain his uncanny openness to physical behavior with you. I think he needs more time to 'get over it' as it were. Taking him away from what you two have could cause a relapse, as I said. Where if I were in control, I would have him interact with other guardians in small blocks of time, with Kira's presence, and expand from there."

"Sooo..." Yirshan scratched the side of her head, mulling over the words. "What you're saying is taking him away would be like ripping a hatchling off of its mother's tit."

Duntay furrowed his brow at that, not approving of the crude analogy, judging by the twitching of his ears. "Yes. The hatchling would wean off eventually. Dylan needs to grow out of clinging to Kira." He looked at the rest of them. "That is only a theory, however. As I have said multiple times, this is a new kind of situation for me, and I am studying it to the best of my abilities. I suspect the exaggerated size difference between human and non-human has led to psychological effects not yet recorded."

Yirshan fluttered her wings in agitation. "So you're guessing? Will he be okay with me or not?"

Duntay shook his head. "I do not know."

"Yes, he will," Kira hastily added after the captain. “Give him some time and the comfort of being with you without pressure, and I believe he will be fine."

Mitchell stood up on the mech's deck and folded his arms. "You know, maybe coddling him isn't the best. Stop worrying so much. That kid is probably harder than most everyone else in the whole damn battalion. Yeah, he's troubled, but the shit he's seen made him strong, too. Remember the simulation? When he killed all of those rynar? Most guys wouldn't go in alone like that. He's got the balls to handle this even if he flips out and breaks down. He'll get over it and it'll get better for it."

Yirshan gave Mitchell an appreciative look. "Thank you! You two seem silly worrying so much. That human beat someone over a head taller than him to death with a shovel. I feel like it'll take more than just being with me to make him have one of his moments."

Duntay opened his mouth to speak, but then stopped himself and nodded at Kira. The lupari took the hint and said what was on both of their minds. "He can be set off by the most random things. You remember the pub. He was falling into a flashback, a horribly violent one, too. It wasn't caused by you, not directly. You were right there, you being close isn't that new to him. But he was triggered by the noise around him, and maybe the newness of the situation. If you're going to be his guardian, he needs to be comfortable with you enough that your presence should help prevent them in the first place. You need to be familiar enough with him that you can recognize when one is happening and ease him out of it."

Yirshan sighed, and it turned to a low growl while she flared her nostrils. "I was loving Cody's behavior. He didn't turn into a quivering mess after Trikil. Now I have to worry about this." She looked at Kira sidelong, one golden eye watching her. Her brow ridge was creased, and then it softened a moment later. "I'll do my best, my friend."

--

Dylan brushed at the fur on Kira's thumb and looked up at Cody in Yirshan's hand, the arkatian walking next to his own guardian as they both headed to meet Duntay. The other human was higher than him, with Yirshan being so much taller, but they could still see each other. Dylan was more interested in the hand the corporal was sitting in, however. It was scaled, where Kira's was padded and covered with fur. It was a dark red on top, a lighter tan with different looking scales on the palm, and it had sharp claws on the fingers. Kira had claws as well, but as he looked at the arkatian's, he felt uneasiness in his stomach. He didn't want to be near those claws. They weren't Kira's claws. He only had a single day before he'd be forced to become Yirshan's charge, and then he'd be near those claws whether he liked it or not. The thought gnawed at his mind as he looked at his guardian to be, and he tried to reassure himself that it would be alright. The more he studied Yirshan, the more familiar she would be. It would be good for him to see all these differences, he hoped. No surprises.

Kira's thumb moved and slid into his lap, where it gently rubbed against his front. "That's what we're going to try to fix with Duntay," she said to him.

Dylan brought his hand to Kira's thumb claw, where his own thumb pushed lightly against the tip. "What?"

"You're nervous of Yirshan," the lupari said, earning the attention of the arkatian herself.

"Yeah," Dylan said, his smile unseen as he paid his attention to his guardian's thumb. Sometimes she really did seem to be able to read his mind. "But why do we need to do this with Duntay? Can't we just swap right now?"

Yirshan chuckled, a deep sound that Dylan swore he could feel in his bones, where Kira's was soft and warm. "I like the way he thinks. Just get it over with."

Kira looked between the both of them, ears splayed and a soft whine coming from her. Her whines were always disarming. "Duntay needs to see your behavior with Yirshan. Maybe he can help you settle in with her."

Cody leaned over his guardian's hand to look down at Dylan, then up at Kira. Yirshan had to slow her gait to match Kira's, where normally she kept a fast pace with long strides. Dylan wondered if the wind from Yirshan walking as he sat in her hand would be overwhelming. "I dunno," Cody said. "I heard he just listens. You seem to be the one that knows everything. He just kinda takes notes, doesn't he?"

Dylan felt the subtle movement through Kira's palm as she shrugged. "He's got the education, I have instinct. Maybe he can explain it better than me."

Yirshan cocked a brow. "I get everything you tell me about him." She hesitated. "I think."

Dylan squinted up at her, suddenly wary of how much she knew about everything. "How much have you told her, Kira?"

The lupari glowered at the other sergeant. "Not much, so I don't think she actually gets everything."

The arkatian fluttered her wings and huffed loudly. "Hey, he wants to swap right now and I think you and him can explain everything better than the headbrusher. Seeing Duntay might not be needed."

"Yirshan!" the lupari snapped. "You just said last night that you'd do your best for this!"

Yirshan's ears folded against her skull, much like Kira's would. "Yeah, but this might not be-" She was suddenly cut off by Cody snapping his fingers together. Dylan expected the arkatian to look down at him, annoyed, but he got an attentive look, with Yirshan's ears pointed forward and down at him. "What?" she asked him. Cody got away with cutting off an apartment building sized sergeant. Dylan couldn't help but smirk at that, especially the look Yirshan gave her charge. It wasn't unlike Kira at all.

"Come on," Cody said. "You're getting worked up. Kira just wants to get all the help she can. She's afraid to lose her charge. You can relate to that, can't you?"

Yirshan smiled down at Cody, her teeth bared, but it didn't appear to affect her charge. Her other hand lifted up to gently rub the back of a clawed, scaled finger against the corporal. "Yeah. I'd tear the arms off of the person that tries to kick you out of here."

Cody nodded and grinned up at her. "Yep, and we've only been a pair for a week."

Yirshan stuck her tongue out at him. Dylan expected it to be forked like a rynar, but it tapered out to a single tip. "Keep your reasoning up and I'll wear you as horn jewelry."

"Is that with tape or a chain?"

Yirshan squinted at him and hesitantly answered, "Dangling by a chain."

"I love swinging," Coday said. Yirshan scoffed and rolled her eyes, but let her charge continue. "So, just let Kira be comfortable with this. You two are friends, call it a favor. It's only a little bit of time out of the day."

The arkatian lightly pressed Cody against her stomach with a finger. "Your idea of little isn't the same as mine." She released him, and looked at Kira. "I'm sorry. We'll do it all your and Dylan's way."

Kira smiled happily and her tail wagged as she walked, but then frowned. "Er, Dylan's way is the swap now..."

Dylan patted his guardian's thumb and shook his head. "Nope, not anymore. My way is your way. Let's see Duntay."

--

Once at the base hospital, Kira lead Yirshan and Cody through the halls to the psychological wing, riding the elevator up a couple of floors, and headed straight for Duntay's office. Once at the door, she brought her hand up to palm the chime on the face of it, but paused with her hand hovering over it, and her ears perked up at the sound of multiple voices on the other side. She pressed one ear up against the door and listened to the muffled sounds.

"-only until the investigation is complete, sir."

"This is preposterous!" what sounded like Duntay's voice shouted. "I have a human patient! I cannot simply cease his treatment!"

"That's not our decision, sir."

"But you're the one that will be watching me like a couple of... of..." There was the thumping sound of someone kicking an object. "Damn you!"

"Please, calm down sir. We will stay out of your business as much as possible."

"Do you call staying outside my door not my business?! Following me around isn't my business?!"

"I said as much as possible. We will take our post now, sir. Good day."

The sounds of footsteps coming to the door prompted Kira to back away. It slid open, and out stepped a red-furred kiori and a gray lupari as short as the kiori. Kira immediately recognized the small lupari as an alakek, or a coyote as she heard the humans call these diminutive members of her species before. Both of them were dressed in the solid, olive green of the military police. They looked up at the two taller sergeants, then down at the two humans in their hands.

"Apologies," said the kiori. "But Captain Duntay has been forbidden to interact with humans."

Before Kira could cry out her surprise, Yirshan beat her to it with a contemptuous snort. "What kind of scale sheddings is that? On what grounds?!"

The lupari-alakek spoke next, her voice far softer than her full sized brethren. "For intimidating a human with size based threats."

"Bullshit!" Cody shouted at them and stood up on Yirshan's hand. "Who the hell said that?!"

"Molayi... Mo..." The kiori chittered briefly, stumbling over the name."Maduk Obasi," the officer finished.

“He's lying!" Yirshan growled angrily, a massive snarl coming from her. She took one angry step towards the two of them, making them take three steps back right into the room.

They both placed their hands on their belts, gripping their stun guns. "R-Regardless," the lupari stuttered, eyes wide and gaping up at the far taller arkatian, "The matter must be investigated. Now please step back." Cody stood up in his guardian's hand when he realized they were clutching their weapons, the human having no idea what to do if his guardian was struck by one of those. That earned the attention of the lupari, who looked at the human just below her eye level, and released her weapon.

However, the kiori didn't seem notice or care, as he was more concerned with the angry sergeant nearly twice his height. “Stand down, sergeant," he snapped, glowering up at her.

Kira placed her hand on her friend's arm and pulled her back. She was heavy, but she complied and stepped backwards to stand behind Kira, keeping some distance from the two officers. "How long will that take?" Kira asked.

Both of them were far more relieved to speak to the smaller sergeant. The kiori let go of his weapon and said, "We can't say."

Kira felt Dylan moving in her palm, and the soles of his boots touched her pads as he got to his feet. "Now hold on. A human just makes a claim that a non-human threatened them like that, and suddenly they're banished from even seeing any other humans?"

The diminutive lupari flicked her ear, "That is correct."

The medic scoffed loudly. "You're keeping me from seeing my doctor because he might have said some bad words to someone?"

The two officers looked at each other, and the lupari winced while folding her ears. "Yes," said the kiori.

Cody shouted over Kira's shoulder, making the lupari's ear flick, "Is that a joke?! I thought you guys were supposed to be all free and understanding and all that. This is some jackbooted shit here."

The both of them fixed Cody with confused looks. "Booted... feces?" the lupari slowly asked.

The kiori waved it off and continued, "It's a part of the requirements put forth by the Guardian and Charge Internal Affairs committee. We have to follow the procedures put forth by them or this base's Integration program will be revoked." He held up his hand and waved for them to move back. "Now, I must ask you to leave unless either sergeant needs to see the captain."

The said two sergeants looked at each other, then Yirshan sighed grumpily and moved to hand Cody over to Kira, but Duntay snapped at them from within his office, "Just go spend your time in the simulations! I'll have Dahashi provide you larger time slots."

Yirshan looked over the two officers at the viliti, shrugged, then turned and started walking down the hall they came. Kira looked into the room at the captain, biting her lower lip. He was furious, but his look softened at her, and he gave her a small wave to get moving. "I'll call you," he said. "They can't stop that, at least."

That helped put the lupari at ease, and she took off after her friend at a light jog, cupping her free hand around Dylan to protect him from the jostling.

--

Dylan hopped off of Kira's hand, his boots hitting the transfer pad with a light thump. Cody was standing a short distance ahead, leaning against the railing along the catwalk past the transfer pad's bridge. "Did that actually just happen?" the corporal asked.

Dylan hastily started to cross over the walkway, and spared a glance behind himself at his guardian. The lupari flashed him that soft smile she always used to try to reassure him, but her eyes were the ones wide with worry, while Dylan appeared unusually calm. He stopped next to Cody, placing one hand on the railing. "Yeah," the medic said. "I guess it did."

"What a load of shit," Cody muttered and folded his arms across his chest. "That's all it takes? A human just has to say someone threatened them and then the poor bastard can't even look at a human? That wasn't in the orientation, was it?"

Dylan shook his head. "No. They just said the alien would be investigated."

The corporal shook his head and sucked his teeth. "That's some fascist investigating."

"Something tells me that's not standard procedure for the UTO," Dylan said.

Yirshan grunted her agreement, earning both humans' attentions. The red arkatian was standing just off to the side of the transfer pad. "It's not. That's you humans' Guardian and Charge affairs thing shearing wings."

"What do you mean?" Cody asked, his arms unfolding. "Isn't it for guardians too?"

Kira whined softly. "That's the idea, but it's mostly focused on protecting humans. We were warned the GCIA had the potential to abuse their power, but..." She canted her head and folded her ears. "I don't understand why this human would. Trikil was the problem, and the problem is gone. This is just abuse of power."

"Abuse?" another voice asked. All eyes shifted over to a golden arkatian, Lieutenant Fahne Kulsah, walking down the stairs from an upper level of simulation pods. "Did something else happen?" Once she reached the bottom of the steps, the far smaller form of a male asishi, a hyena, appeared from behind the tremendous wings of the officer.

"Halllooo!" came the German accented voice of Corporal Erik Kuster from behind Dylan and Cody.

Both men turned around to see Russell just behind Erik, a couple of freshly opened pods not far behind them. The commando looked at Dylan and Cody, then up at the guardians as they started to discuss the recent development. "Did Maduk decide to fuck you some more or are we just having another lament?"

"Maduk got Dylan's doctor banned from being with humans," Cody said.

The overly happy grin on Erik's face suddenly vanished into a slightly gaping mouth. "What?" he said, switching to German and making Dylan's earpiece start translating. "Can he still see his patient?"

"Nope," Cody said. "Bullshit, I know."

"That has to be a joke," Russell said, exasperated. He stopped in front of the other two with Erik. "What are we doing about it?"

Dylan shrugged. "I have no idea. I'm just here to try to do something with Yirshan. Duntay was supposed to help."

Russell looked over Dylan's shoulder at the guardians, as they all muttered their agitation over Maduk. The Englishman grunted, and folded his arms to lean on the top of the railing. "I'll talk to Mitchell."

"What's that going to do?" Erik asked. He joined the rest of them to line the railing.

"Mitchell is Maduk's escort," Russell elaborated. "We might be able to use that to buy Dylan some more time with Kira over the week."

"Oh," Erik slowly said, then his eyes widened with actual realization. "Oooooh..."

None of them pushed for any explanations from the officer. It was a stark contrast to the guardians, who grumbled their agitation, and tossed ideas around about what to do. All four humans watched the whole exchange as they leaned against the railing, side by side in a row. Dylan subtly grinned, even the bleakness of the situation was unable hide the irony of four giant predators whining and complaining over the meddling of someone that could fit in their hands.

"Spade," Private Erik Kuster said.

Dylan didn't say anything, expecting Erik to go on. When the German didn't, he muttered a slightly agitated, "Yeah?"

"Your guardian's tail seems to be stuck between her legs. Will she be okay?" the corporal asked.

Russell leaned further over the railing to look sidelong at the medic at the end of the tow. "Looks like she's worrying for two. Are you not worried, lad?"

Dylan shrugged without looking at either of them. "Lupari develop strong bonds quickly. I'd be worried if she wasn't acting like this. For me, though..." He shrugged again. "I learned not to worry about what I can't control. It lets me pretend I'm not up to my eyeballs in bullshit."

The commando slowly nodded in approval. "Good on you. But, you feel something, don't you?"

The medic finally looked at the others as he turned to see down the line of them. He grimaced and ran a hand through his short, brown hair. He knew Russell was prodding to ensure whether or not he was going through some kind of emotionless shock, but he went along regardless. "The thought of being with Yirshan scares the piss out of me. I just try not to think about it too much. Thinking makes a lot of things worse."

Erik looked toward his hyena-like guardian, Corporal Onsen, the male asishi standing next to Fahne and Yirshan as they tried to reassure the stressed lupari. "Like your memories? You speak to your guardian about them, though, yes?"

Dylan shrugged once more. "Yeah."

Erik scratched his chin, an amused smirk on his face. "I have told my guardian about the advance back across the Rhine... ah, erm, after our big friends cleared the way, and he asked me if I got to watch any rynar drown in the river as the mighty humans chased after them." He chuckled mirthfully. "Asishi are aggressive. It is funny how he seems to direct it into wanting to tear the throat out of anyone that gives me an odd look."

Cody grinned hugely and looked at his own guardian, the huge red arkatian watching her friend. "Yirshan seems like the type that rips spines out and strangles their owners with them, but she's obsessed over getting hugged on the end of her snout."

Russell scoffed and shook his head, but his smirk betrayed his amusement. "Hugging, petting, nuzzling... how you lot can take it is beyond me. You and your guardians are all barmy. The strangest thing mine does is simply talk about her onus too much. She thinks she's meant to be a soldier, so I spend a lot of time training her here. She's been reading Rommel's book and quoting Patton recently."

A few chuckles were shared between them, but Dylan's immediately ceased when he heard Kira whine loudly at her fellows. He wasn't paying any mind to their conversation, but when she looked towards him, eyes wide with worry, he already had a good idea. With a wave of his arm, the medic motioned for her to come over. The lupari didn't miss a beat as she immediately brushed passed the three other guardians to pad over to him and the three other men.

The humans craned their heads back to look up at the looming sergeant when she stopped right before them, just like she did at the barracks the night before. This time, however, she held none of that amusement of toying with her charge. She extended one of her fingers for him to touch and looked at the other three humans with an anxiety made abundantly clear by her ears folding to the side. She wanted more than a simple pet on the finger, Dylan could tell. This was something that reassured him, not her. She was still trying to be the protective guardian, as well as honoring their agreement to tone down their physicality in front of the others.

Dylan regarded her huge, furry, clawed finger for a moment, then used two of his own fingers to beckon her to come down to his level. Her ears suddenly went straighter as her eyes brightened and she bent her head down to the level of the catwalk, her black nose within arm's reach from the edge. Her charge extended his hand over the railing and placed it between her nostrils. He petted in slow circles, and he was immediately rewarded with her blue eyes lidding with affection. Her nose was wet and cold, just like a dog's. Her nostrils flared like one, too, though at her size it was heavily exaggerated as the intake of air subtly ruffled his clothing. "It'll be alright, Kira," Dylan said with a smile, watching her ears splay from his touch.

Kira a deep inhale through her nostrils after her snuffling, a rare sign that she wasn't sure what scent she was picking up. "You are so worried, yet you're not." Her folded ear flicked at the sound of an amused chuckle from Russell, but the human didn't interrupt. The lupari let out a resigned sigh, her warm, moist breath blowing across her charge. "I'm starting to think that even when you show Maduk you can be with Yirshan, he will still try to ruin things. He has too much power." She whined again and pressed her nose closer, until it touched the railing. "I don't want him to hurt you."

The medic nudged her nose, encouraging it to ease aside while giving a couple of nods at one of the lupari's ears. A tiny smiled pursed the edges of Kira's muzzle and she turned her head to the side, presenting an ear that any two of the humans could fit into together. Her ear smooshed up against the railing, presenting Dylan with a white, fuzzy, subtly pink wall radiating a comforting warmth. He was nearly within the arch of her ear when he gently stroked the inside with both of his hands. "I've been through worse," he said very quietly to her, mindful of her sensitive hearing. It was too quiet for her earpiece on the other side to pick up, but her English was good enough to understand. "Thanks to you though, Kira, I'll be okay." He leaned forward and nuzzled his cheek against the thin fur of her ear, eliciting a delighted hum from his guardian, one that he simply knew had her eyes shut with enjoyment.

Kira didn't say anything back, choosing instead to enjoy this little exchange of physical affection regardless of what the others thought of the whole thing. Dylan glanced behind him to see Russell was trying to keep his eyes forward, though he was casting a few uneasy looks at them. Erik was watching with a ridiculous grin on his face, and Cody was only a couple feet behind Dylan, looking inside of Kira's ear.

"Can I try?" he asked, though his voice was too loud, earning a disgruntled grumble from the enormous sergeant.

"If you stop shouting," Kira said to him, shocked out of her blissful enjoyment.

"Sorry," the corporal said in a breathy whisper. Dylan scooted over for the other man, allowing him room within the little alcove Kira's ear provided. "Damn," he muttered. "She's got warm ears." His hands joined Dylan's, and he mimicked him with the slow rubbing, thankfully avoiding the lupari's leg button, triggered by scratching. Behind them, Russell groaned and grumbled about the completely ridiculous sight of two grown men, soldiers, clamoring to pet an oversized dog ear.

Dylan nudged Cody with his elbow. "You're practically in her ear, you know. You can tell her that."

Cody rolled his eyes, but grinned at the whole ordeal. "Feels nice, doesn't it? How overwhelming it is? It kinda just somehow comes back around and feels great, doing something like this."

The medic shrugged, never having put much thought into this. He just liked making his friend happy. "Sure."

"Yeah," Cody continued. "Kinda reminds me of when Yirshan stepped on me."

Kira was the first to react, as the subtle movement of her breathing stilled, something easily detectable at Dylan's size, as her ear became completely unmoving. Dylan continued to pet his guardian's ear for a whole second before he suddenly stopped and looked at the other man. "Wait," he muttered. "What?"

Cody grinned at him and shrugged. “Hm?"

Dylan's mouth opened, but it closed a moment later. That was a can of worms he would not open. The two soldiers behind them both came to the same conclusion, as they both pretended to not hear it while they tried listening to the chatter of the other guardians.

Cody didn't say anything more and the medic decided not to encourage him as they treated Kira's ear. Dylan bit his tongue, wanting to gripe over the fact Cody and Yirshan may have been doing things like that after their brief time together, yet Maduk considered Kira and his relationship at risk. The only consolation he had was Maduk likely didn't even know – Yirshan and Cody weren't the ones with a psychological history someone could root through. He let the thought go and festered in the awkward silence until Kira's yutri chimed with a series of rapid, musical beeps. The sergeant immediately pulled her ear away from the both of them. Her glowing forearm interface lit all of the humans up with a dull blue glow as it streaked up to their level. The other three guardians noticed what was happening, and the two arkatians stepped up behind the shorter lupari to look over her head at her device, while Onsen stood by her side. Kira darted her fingers through the projection to answer the call and divert it to the speaker on her wrist mounted yutri peripheral.

As expected, it was Duntay. However, the words, "I should have those mange furred, knot tails sent to police an asteroid..." was certainly unexpected. There was no visual display of Duntay, the call remaining strictly audio.

"Ah..." Kira muttered. "Hello sir."

The captain showed no signs of his grumbling mere moments before as he said, "Hello, Kira," in a friendly, calm voice. "You are at the simulation hive, yes? Yes. Good. You're skipping your hand to hand training with Dylan today," he abruptly paused. "Or, you could train with Sergeant Kultak and Coporal Shaw. Yes, yes... regardless! What you MUST do is have Dylan and Kultak interact with each other at a similar scale. But DO NOT practice Dylan climbing into Yirshan's hand in a simulation. Do that after you finish your time in the hive. Maduk is still at work demolishing any sense of privacy and scouring simulation logs and live feeds."

Dylan saw Kira's ears flick with understanding, and just above her head, Yirshan's eyes narrowed down at the device. "But I thought he's supposed to get used to me," she said.

"Yes, yes," Duntay impatiently said. "He will. But if Maduk sees Dylan react badly to you in a simulation, then that provides him with more turf to sink his claws into. What I want you to do with Dylan, sergeant, is ensure he is comfortable with your presence."

Yirshan's wings fluttered her wings and looked at Dylan, her annoyance fading into a brief smile for a short moment. "But he's fine right now. We even had dinner together, for Kalyan's sake. That's further than a lot of guys get." Cody was the only one of the four men to laugh, the corporal grinning massively up at his guardian. Lieutenant Kulshah stamped her foot, sending a rumble all the way up to the catwalk the humans stood on, and her golden eyes bored into the sergeant's as a deep, low growl escaped her.

Yirshan's ears flicked and laid flat against her skull. "Apologies..."

The golden arkatian's glare didn't let up. "I know you're frustrated, but you need to keep your attitude in check and respect the captain. It's disgraceful."

"Yes, ma'am," Yirshan said. "It won't happen again, captain."

Duntay's voice didn't hold a single hint of annoyance over the sergeant's childish behavior as he went on to explain, " I believe a good start to prepare for the swap is to more intimately familiarize Dylan with your personality, and yours with his. Furthermore, it's important for you to reign in your agitation when handling Dylan. You must present a comfortable front to him."

"Hey!" Dylan snapped and slammed his hand on the railing, earning the attention of each guardian. He glowered up at them and stood straight, his chest inflating. "I'm not some crying sob. You don't have to act like I'll fall apart as soon as I get a funny look." The medic caught Yirshan's golden eyes focusing on him, and she gave a brief nod of appreciation. The others exchanged looks of wariness, and it was abundantly clear to Dylan they thought otherwise. Even Kira appeared unsure over his claim.

"That is likely so, Dylan," Duntay slowly said, choosing his words carefully. "But I simply wish to avoid any incidents. It's best to err on the side of caution with this situation. I suspect Maduk will attempt to use any problems between you and Yirshan to remove you from this training, citing some ridiculous idea of you being too vulnerable to abuse. I'm sorry if I made you feel coddled."

The medic's hand squeezed the railing until his knuckles turned white as his cheeks flushed. The only one that noticed his sudden shift to discomfort was Kira, who canted her head, as she silently watched him. "Too late for that..." he mumbled.

"Say again, please?"

"Nothing, captain."

"Alright," Duntay said. "I would prefer to be present for whatever may happen, but this is all I can offer. Have a pleasant time in the simulations, you all, and please report to me how things go. I expect it shall go quite well, but regardless, keep me updated. Farewell."

A few utterances of farewells went around, and Kira ended the call and the projection along her forearm vanished. Suddenly, before anyone could say anything, the blue furred, human sized form of the AI falashai, Dahashi, floated up before the humans. He was wearing the tight spandex outfit of classic Superman, complete with a red, flowing cape. His legs were straight and together, and his arms were folded across his chest as he looked at Dylan. Cody and Erik snickered, Russell actually guffawed, while a grin slowly made its way across the medic's face when he eyed the fox tail attached to the side of the 'S' emblem on the outfit's chest. Dahashi held up his chin triumphantly at being able to amuse all four men. "Impressive, I know! I made my own Supervulp simulation to play around in."

"Supervulp?" Dylan said incredulously, a rolling chuckle escaping him.

The AI nodded his head happily, a silly smile on his muzzle. "Supervulp! Faster than a speeding plasma bolt! More powerful than a dreadnought! Able to leap space stations in a single bound! Look, up in the sky! It's an arkatian! It's a jahkatian! It's Supevulp!"

"I don't get it..." Erik said, stifling his laughter. "What's vulp?"

"Vulpine, you prat," Russell said. "It means fox."

"Oh," Erik said flatly. "Hey, can I be Batdog? In the sims?"

Dahashi flicked both of his ears. "Of course! For your next time here. You, dear human, are out of time for the day. I shall begin designing your bat winged canine form. Now, shoo! And take your guardian with you."

"Bat winged canine..." The German muttered as his guardian made his way over to the pad. He left the other humans and headed off to the huge, brown, black spotted hand of his guardian that placed itself onto the transfer pad. "That is even better than what I was thinking. I'll see all of you later!"

Fahne laid her own hand down to collect Russell once Onsen carried Erik away. The commando patted Dylan on the shoulder as he went by. "You might like to be stroked like a cat, but I know you're a tough sort. They're worrying for nothing. I expect to see you getting... 'petted' ... by Yirshan by next week."

Dylan fixed him with squinted eyes. "I'm going to get twitchy over what everyone thinks about me and Kira."

Russell laughed and let go of his shoulder. "At least you're not Cody. I'd bet he and Yirshan fucked if I didn't know any better."

The human officer headed off to his guardian's waiting hand. Cody said after him, "How do you know any better?" The only acknowledgement Russell gave him was his middle finger as he strode away.

Once the two officers were gone, Yirshan glared down at Cody, her wings unfurling to make her appear even larger as she snapped at him, "Don't start a rumor like that! If I hear anything about us having sex, I'll wear you as a horn ornament."

Dahashi coughed exaggeratedly before this talk could go any further. "Simulation time!" he cried. "We've wasted enough of the expanded slot Duntay got you two cleared for. What would you like to do?"

"Fly," Yirshan said. "Like you are now. Except with my wings."

"How about this, then," Kira said. "Has your Rome simulation been developed enough for a flyover, Dahashi?"

"Oh, that's good," Dylan interrupted, grinning at the prospect. "Maybe we could still get the hand to hand training in, then we can fly over Rome." For the first time today, excitement crept into the medic's voice.

Dahashi rapidly nodded and flicked his ears. "Oh, yes yes! I would love to show it to you! Why, I finished the Imperial Fora just this morning. You would love it! Off to the pods with you. Make haste. Imperial Rome, awaits!" He unfolded his arms and looked down at himself. "Oh, I'm not dressed for this, oh no no no..." he muttered and abruptly vanished.

The group split up, with Yirshan and Kira heading to an upper level to their pods, while the two humans only had to turn around and pick any one of the many pods a mere stone's throw away from them. Dylan and Cody settled on two side by side on the bottom level. Cody climbed into his, then poked his head out to say over to Dylan, “Hey… how hard does Kira kick your ass in the hand to hand?"

Dylan rolled his eyes and backed into his pod. “Her ass kickings have a particularly gentle aspect to them."

The corporal vanished into his pod. “Really?"

“No," Dylan said flatly and laid down. As the doors slid closed, he said, “I climb out of this thing bruised," just before it clicked and sealed him in.

--

"What is this, a bed sheet?" asked Yirshan, gawking down at her loose tunic.

Cody, lacking his glasses, mirrored her posture, looking down at himself as well. "Is this a toga?"

Kira spread her toes in the sand beneath her paws, delighting in the feeling, and snickered at the two of them. "You look wonderfully Roman!"

Yirshan looked up at her friend, the both of them eye level for the sake of training. The red arkatian's torso and top half of her legs were covered by the loose, cream colored fabric. "I'm wearing a skirt."

Dylan, standing just next to Kira, looked at the other human's outfit with his eyes wide and the edge of his mouth curled into a frown. "These things look ridiculous on us. I never realized just how much. Those two just look exotic."

"Really?" Yirshan asked, looking at the males incredulously. "I think you two look exotic and we look like hatchlings trying on bath towels. You even have those fancy stringy sandals on." The arkatian's own feet were bare, the thick scales on her soles and claws on the digits often making footwear undesirable, as with most species.

Cody lifted one of his feet up and looked at it. "How does this thing even work?" he muttered as he looked over the leather straps running up from his sandal to his shins. "Do we have to wear these?"

"Well, no," said Dahashi's voice, speaking directly into their heads. "I just think it's fitting for the environment. Look around! Where are you?"

Cody's foot plopped back down into the sand, and he looked up at the rows of seats circling the large arena, then at the cloth overhangs lightly fluttering in the breeze. "Oh."

Yirshan looked higher, up at the light blue sky, with puffy white clouds lazily floating by overhead. "I can't fly around in here," she said flatly, and finally unfurled her modified wings. Kira felt her fur ruffle from the rush of air as those enormous, leathery appendages extended outward, over six times as wide as Yirshan was, just like Fahne's were in the real world. One wing wrapped itself around Cody, and yanked him over into the arkatian's side.

The human didn't even yelp, or offer any resistance as he bumped into his guardian's side, cocooned in her wing. "Well, yeah," he said to Yirshan as he carefully pulled her wing out from around himself. "It's the Coliseum. You're supposed to stab people in here, not fly around."

"What?" Yirshan said, surprised, and unrolled her wing from around Cody. She looked at Dylan and Kira, unsure. "This is a blood arena? Do you two do that in here?"

Dylan and Kira looked at each other, the lupari with her ears splayed and the human with a slight frown. “No," Dylan answered. “Kira just shows me hand to hand training in here."

“Hold your tongue," Kira interrupted when an excited look crossed Yirshan's face “We didn't come in here to do blood sports."

Yirshan's golden eyes glimmered and she bore her teeth in a grin. “Why not? I know you've played games like it before."

Kira scoffed and glanced at her charge. “Of course, but Dylan could hardly throw a decent punch before I got to him. Let alone something like a sword."

Cody's lips turned up into a smirk and he lightly hit Dylan on the shoulder. “He sure can use a shovel, though."

“That was just luck," the medic muttered, rubbing the back of his head. “I've never even held a sword before."

“May I offer a thought?" came the voice of Dahashi, this time from behind Kira and Dylan. The four of them turned to look at the blue falashai as her padded up to them, his paws disturbing the sand behind him, leaving a trail that started from nowhere.

Kira was taken aback - the normally lithe avatar was unreasonably well built now, and his garb of choice was now some sort of ridiculous arrangement of leather and armor. His chest was wrapped in a harness holding the leather and plate armor attached to his left arm, while a sword hung from a leather skirt. The lupari took a short moment to admire the falashai's exposed, thick chest and toned midsection, briefly musing about the lack of armor. “Of course," she answered.

"Gladiator fights. You four against a few waves of foes."

Yirshan's mirth over the AI's outfit seemed to be completely forgotten at those words, and her wings fluttered excitedly, causing a gust of air that ruffled Kira's fur and clothes, as well as kicking up some of the sand below her. "That would be fun!"

Kira fixed her with a flat look. "Of course you would, but these two have no experience with combat like that."

"Uh," Cody said and held up his hand. "Actually, Dylan has shovel experience."

Dylan scoffed and folded his arms. He nodded his head sideways at the other man, "Yeah, and Cody here is a pro with a hockey stick."

Cody nodded deeply, as if he heard the wise words of a sage. "I wield a hockey stick with the skill of Gretzky and ferocity of Darcy Tucker."

The two guardians and even the AI looked at the two humans, whatever joke the two made having been lost on them. "It's settled, then," Yirshan suddenly said and clasped her hands together. "These two get a shovel and a stick and I'll take the warhammer."

Dahashi waved her off dismissively. "Come now, that is ridiculous. Clearly they should have firearms."

The arkatian blinked at the suggestion, then laughed. "Guns! I like it."

Kira scratched her ear, brow cocked. "Wouldn't that be too easy?"

"It's that or they get beaten in a few seconds," Dahashi said with a shrug. "Or I could make your opponents brain dead. But that might be too easy."

"I'll take a C6, thank you," Cody said with a grin as wide as his guardian's.

Dahashi tsked and shook his head with disapproval. "No, no, my dear bullet hosing human, you need something that forces you to be accurate. You don't want to shoot your friends, do you? You're getting a Lee-Enfield Number Four, Mark One.

Both Yirshan and Kira had no idea what weapon that was, but Cody apparently did as he furrowed his brow. "A bolt rifle? Really?"

"A bolt action, indeed!" Dahashi answered happily. He brought his hands together and clapped softly and rapidly. "Okay! I can tell you all would like to try this, not just Yirshan, so here are the rules. First, it'll be very low realism. No blood, and no pain. Your enemies will vanish when eliminated, and if you're hurt I will simulate loss of limb control, possibly through wild flailing. Body hits lead to elimination, and you will respawn a minute later if any of your teammates are still in the game. There is no exhaustion, so swing to your hearts' contents! You must defeat ten waves of enemies to win. Questions?"

Dylan looked about sheepishly, and when nobody asked anything he muttered, "Will we get aim assist?"

Dahashi's eyes lit up with excitement. "Oh, this will be fun. You all enjoy yourselves!"

The human's shout of complaint was suddenly cut off by the whiteness of a simulation reset.

...

...

Kira felt the familiar weight of hursan swords in both of her hands just before her sight was restored to her. It was the arena once more, but the roaring sounds of a cheering crowd reached her ears. A quick look up showed the crowds, full of all of the races and even humans, hooting and hollering down into the arena. Smiling, the lupari spun her short, curved blades in circles and bowed to the crowd, arms stretched out to her sides, the swords still spinning. It wasn't a trick so easily done in reality, but the simulations, when set to such a game like setting, could allow players to accomplish fantastic things with relative ease. It couldn't replace skill entirely, a basic understanding was required, but it could make an unskilled player appear talented, simply by doing what the player imagined, rather than what their muscles tried to do.

The crowd's cheers grew even louder at her bow, and Kira could see out the corner of her eye that Yirshan was holding up her rentasa warhammer with a single hand. The cruel, two sided, dull spiked maul was a dark gray, even the haft. It was plain compared Kira's shining blades with their green grips.

However, the angry, grunting sounds behind her told her the humans weren't having quite such a happy reaction to the audience. Kira turned her head, mid bow, and saw Dylan struggling with the action on a long rifle with an almost sword like bayonet attached to the end, while Cody held his, watching the other human struggle. He huffed, frustrated, and shoved the weapon into Cody arms. "Fix it!" Cody's rifle hung from its sling, the bayonet pointing out conspicuously, looking like it'd cut Dylan by the way it started shaking as the corporal fought with the mechanism, cursing at the weapon when it refused to budge.

Kira turned in the sand to watch, sliding her weapons into their scabbards hanging at her sides, amused more by her two ridiculous allies than the crowd. Yirshan placed her hammer down headfirst onto the ground and leaned against the haft. While Yirshan and Kira wore light, padded leather armor all over their bodies, the two humans had no armor to speak of, as they wore only cloth tunics and boots, with bandoleers for their extra ammunition.

"Did they break it already?" the arkatian asked.

The lupari shrugged. "I think I hear the crowd laughing at us."

The crowd was as alive as Dahashi could make them, and it was a convincing facade, as always. Laughter did sweep among the audience, and Kira swore she could hear some of them making bets about how long they'd last. The raucous amusement of the crowd was brought to a slow halt, however, when Dahashi himself, in the fine robes he wore during the last show he held here for Kira and Dylan to see, raised up his hands to silence them all. Once they were quiet, he clapped his hands together. "Citizens of Rome 2.0! I bring you another grand showing of martial prowess! Four brave gladiators will fend off hordes of barbaric fiends! Today, we have Fluffy, the lupari menace!" One of Kira's ears folded to the side and she glowered up at the falashai in the stands. "Hammertime, the arkatian meathead!" Yirshan seemed completely unimpressed by that. "And Shooty and Not-Shooty the two stooges!"

There was a click and sliding of metal, followed by a triumphant shout from Cody. "Got it!" he hollered and passed the weapon back to Dylan, then pointed up at Dahashi accusingly. "Nice try, buddy! We got it."

"Ahem," Dahashi said, looking away. "Shooty and Blasty, the Brass Brothers! They will be your heroes this fine day. And this day begins.... now!"

Heavy iron barred doors around the edges of the arena opened up with loud clangs and booms. Kira's ears straightened with alertness and surprise, expecting a lot more show and crowd pandering than just that. She pulled her swords free and with Yirshan dragged their two companions into the center of the arena before taking up positions on either sides of them, with them together between them. Dylan had Yirshan's back and Cody was to watch hers.

Kira quietly hoped, as she saw Cody's rifle come into her peripheral vision, the bayonet shining in the sunlight, that a simple game with Yirshan was all this would take, that her friend was strong enough.

--

Dylan's fingers tapped against the length of the wooden encased barrel as he cast the sights over the various doors. He was hardly so familiar with bolt actions like this, but he at least knew enough to figure it out. It was simple, took clips of bullets, and he'd likely get him and Yirshan killed with this thing. Yirshan held her hammer at the ready, a small distance ahead of him. She obviously knew how to use the weapon, while he awkwardly held up his overly long rifle.

Suddenly, there were growls, howls, and roars coming from the door directly ahead of them, sounding like a stampede of wild animals. He saw shadows of movement in the darkness within, just before wild, stereotypically fur clad, axe wielding barbarian versions of the UTO races came out in a wild sprint. Dylan briefly thought about how odd it was that these four were adorned in fur pelts, but that thought ended as quickly as his first bullet left the barrel of his rifle.

Yirshan flinched at the booming report from his rifle, but didn't look away from the chargers, letting her see the bullet land in the sand in front of their foes as they charged- a total, embarrassing miss. The arkatian didn't say anything, however, and simply hefted her hammer higher and charged at them with a loud roar that could be heard atop the whole group's.

While Dylan worked the action on the rifle, Yirshan swung her hammer into one's stomach, sending him hurtling backwards in an ark. Two of them focused on the arkatian, while the third ran right passed her towards Dylan. The human cycled his gun and fired a snapshot into the asishi's chest just as he raised his weapon for a downward swing. With a sidestep he managed to avoid the body as it hurtled towards him, only feeling a leg brush against his as it hit the ground. He only spared it a short glance before making a dash towards Yirshan and their two foes. It was like a game, he noticed even in his rush of adrenaline. Rather than mob the arkatian one attacked while the other stood idle, as if waiting his turn to attack and deal with Yirshan's counter.

Dylan didn't wait, however, as he drove his bayonet into the back of a lupari with enough force to spear out his front in a bloodless display. The barrel of the gun jammed into his back, and shoved him off of his paws and face down into the sand. The other, a tordenchi of all things, looked taken aback by the end of his companion, just long enough for Yirshan to drive her elbow into the side of his head, knocking him off of his feet with a bone cracking crunch, just like in a video game. The crowd went wild with delight, cheering on Hammertime and Shooty.

The both of them looked at the tordenchi, knocked out cold by the hit, then exchanged grins. The cheers of the crowds made Dylan swell with pride, even if he knew they were just a fake audience - it all felt so very real. Yirshan raised her hammer with one hand, pounded on her leather clad chest, and roared excitedly at the crowd. Dylan took a step back, surprised by just how loud that bellow was. Even in this simulation, he felt it rattle his chest. Not to be put off, however, he mimicked her pose and raised his rifle up by the grip. He turned in the spot with his other hand in the air as if sweeping the applause from the air and straight into his ego. His spin brought his two other companions into his view, as they both stood there, watching. Kira was holding her swords, while Cody had his rifle's butt planted in the sand as he held it by the barrel. The both of them didn't have a single body around them.

Dylan canted his head and let his arms fall to his side, the bayonet of his rifle cutting a swath through the sand. "Would you like some popcorn?"

"Caramel, please," Cody said with a smirk.

Kira's ear flicked and that leering grin spread across her muzzle. Dylan knew what she was going to say

"Chicken," Dylan and Kira said together. Their voices speaking together set Kira's tail into an excited wag.

"Chicken flavored pop-corn?" Cody muttered with a squint. "I dunno about that..."

Soon after, the next wave came, this time two to both sides, which was easily handled by each one of them taking a barbarian. From there, the waves got progressively more difficult. Three to a side, soon four, and even five in a ten versus four brawl full of gunfire, smashing bones, and dramatic, slicing cuts. The four player group was forced into a tighter formation as their foes came from every side, with the two warriors standing stalwart in front of their supporting riflemen. They found a harmonious pattern there, assailed from all sides. Dylan and Cody would take their shots to cut down their adversaries in an opening burst of rapidly firing their rifles, only managing to get two or three shots off before the barbarians were upon them. But the warriors would meet them, and any that got behind them faced the long bayonets of the humans, or even a point blank shot, sometimes both.

It was blind, ridiculous fun. These opponents were obviously not acting like they would in a real fight, with their straight charges, attacking one at a time, predictable movements, and their ease of distraction. All it took was for Kira or Yirshan to growl at them, and they'd shift their attention from the humans to them. It was easy, but Dylan felt his adrenaline pumping through him as if it were a real fight, but instead it was a harmless, absolute thrill.

However, it was the last wave where Dahashi finally took the gloves off. Instead of mindless chargers bellowing their battle cries, the sounds of thumping metal came from passages along the arena's edges. Dylan brought his rifle to bear on one of them, the sound of a rattling chain bringing his focus to it. Through his iron sights he saw a golden glimmer of polished metal as a large shape walked out of the darkness and into the bright sunlight. One armored hand held a chain aloft while the other spun the end of it, the sharp blade on the end making a glint with each spin around. More confident in his accuracy now, Dylan squeezed the trigger before the gladiator was even a meter from the door. The bullet slammed into his opponent with a loud metallic clang and a burst of sparks as it deflected off of the armor. Dylan's hand reflexively went to cycle the action, but he paused with his hand halfway there and his mouth gaping slightly when he realized what happened.

"Shit!" he shouted. "Bulletproof!"

A gunshot directly behind him, followed by the clang of another deflection told him Cody was dealing with the same problem. As the juggernaut charged, Dylan brought his aim upward to his head, hoping to send a shot between the cage like view slits on his helmet. The armored warrior seemed to expect that, however, and lowered his head to present the thick armor on top of his helmet. With no other option, Dylan aimed for a joint on his armored arm, and took a quick shot at it as he closed in, but the bullet went high and slammed into the arena wall with a burst of shattering stone and dust.

The warrior lifted his head back up only a few meters in front of Dylan. He slowed and prepared to send the bladed chain swinging at him. Dylan backpedaled, but knew he wouldn't escape the wide swing of that chain. He was just thinking this would be his first elimination when Kira came hurtling in from the armored gladiator's side and drove her sword into the spinning chain, catching it and forcing it to wrap around her sword. The lupari released her weapon then spun around to the back of the other warrior to escape the flailing chain. She swung her other sword into the back of his neck, immediately making him go limp and hit the ground in a heap of rattling plate armor.

With her other weapon lost, tied up in the chain underneath the slain gladiator, Kira gripped her sword with both hands and raised it up high as she turned to meet the downward swing of a greatsword from another gladiator. At the same time, Dylan made a dash towards him, his bayonet aimed for the weakly armored back, ready to impale him. However, he was too slow, and the greatsword was too massive. It smashed Kira's smaller one handed blade out of its way and slammed into the lupari. Dylan heard her canine yelp of surprise just as his bayonet struck his enemy's armor.

The movement of his enemy, Kira's whine, and plain, bad luck threw his aim off. He missed the center of the gladiator's back, and it deflected off the sharp angle of his armored side to slip right out in front of him. The warrior's elbow slammed into Dylan's face, sending him staggering backwards in shock, his weapon falling from his hands. He felt no pain at all, but his vision was blurred and he felt suddenly sluggish, as if something was slowing him down. He tried to blink away the blur, and managed to clear it just enough to see two other figures standing over Yirshan and Cody's fallen forms just as the third's huge greatsword made a wide sideways swing into him.

The blade drove into his side, and sent him hurtling off of his feet, beaten. His body went completely still and limp just before his vision flashed with 'GAME OVER' in large, UTO common script. The background faded to darkness, and the voices of his companions burst into his mind.

"What was that, Dahashi!" Yirshan snapped. "You just went from meat to meat grinder!"

"I'm sorry," Dahashi said, laughter lacing his voice. "I'm still working on game balance. It's tricky to balance guns into a gladiator arena!"

“You're the one that suggested it!" Kira snapped.

“I needed beta testers." Dylan couldn't see anything beyond the game over screen, and the unnerving lack of movement made him want to disconnect, but he still felt like the AI was probably, somewhere, grinning fiendishly.

“Can we try again?" Cody asked.

A loud huff came from Yirshan's voice. “I'd rather just fly now. I'm sure Dylan would love that as much as you do, Cody."

“I think I'd like that," Dylan agreed.

He wasn't sure what to expect for this flight. He figured Yirshan would simply pick him up and fly off, likely with the simulation's physics modified to make it possible. However, once the simulation reset, he instead found himself looking up at the arkatian towering above all of them at over three meters in height, with a harness strapped to her front, obviously made for carrying someone. Yirshan, with her shadow looming over Dylan, grinned down at him with her rows of sharp, white teeth showing and pointed a finger at her harness. “In you go!"

Dylan looked back at Cody and Kira. The other human had a ridiculous smile on his face, and he was obviously holding back laughter. Kira's ears were folded half flat and she had a sympathetic smile on her face.

Suddenly, Dylan felt large, strong hands wrap around his sides, and with a cry of surprise, Yirshan picked the medic up as if he were a small child. She spun him around so his back was to her, and lowered him down so his legs could slide into the smaller harness attached to her front.

Dylan blinked and looked up at Yirshan. His back was against her chest, pushing her breasts aside, while his legs hung down to her waist. “There's baby carriers like this..."

“There are carriers like this for hatchlings, too. What's your point?" The sergeant smirked at him, surely knowing full well what the point was.

“This is kind of demeaning."

Yirshan's lips curled down into a frown. “And getting picked up in someone's hand isn't? Come now, it's cute and that's that. I've carried a tordenchi like this before, if it makes you feel better."

Dylan squinted suspiciously, unsure if she actually doesn't intend to make him feel demeaned. “Why did you carry a tordenchi in a pouch?"

Yirshan snorted and spread her wide wings, so large as to cover nearly a third of the width of the ring. She gave them a few testing flaps, kicking up gusts of sand and making Kira and Cody back away, covering their faces. “Not a pouch, a carry harness. I did disaster relief work for a time, and arkatians and neishor are often given harnesses to carry smaller people out of difficult places."

“Injured people?" Dylan asked, unsure of what was wrong with a stretcher.

Yirshan's enormous, scaled red hands wandered over the human, buckling a few straps, and making sure he was firmly attached to her. "Sometimes, if their injury permitted it. I experimented with a few types of dangerous work to find my onus. One of them was firefighting and disaster relief just before joining the military. I only got to use this kind of harness once, when I carried a tordenchi out of a burning building, along with an ashar and a kiori."

“All three at the same time?"

“Two to either arm, and the smallest in the harness, yes."

“Huh," Dylan grunted, imagining Yirshan with a mouse, a rat, and a squirrel passed out in her arms. "How long did it take you to find out you wanted your onus to be the military?" he asked, leaning back to let her inspect the harness, almost forgetting how awkwardly shameful it was.

"Four years," Yirshan murmured. “It certainly frustrated my parents. They wanted me to become teachers like them. It didn't help I took so long to figure out my onus."

"Sorry to hear that." Dylan could somewhat related to that. It took him years to figure out he resented school and turn to the military. His mother still supported him, however, her frustration never going to the levels that he learned an arkatian would over their onus, their purposes in life.

Yirshan didn't respond. Instead, her large hands slipped under his armpits and suddenly tugged upwards. Dylan let out a grunt of surprise, but didn't budge as the harness's straps held firm. "There," the arkatian said. "Are you ready?"

Dylan looked down at himself, with his legs dangling limply beneath him, in a pouch like harness attached to Yirshan, the arkatian over twice the size he was. He couldn't quite understand why this felt so much more ridiculous than being in her hand. He sighed breathily in his shame. "Yes, mom."

The arkatian laughed. Dylan could feel the subtle vibrations against his back as she shook with the amusement. "You're the ugliest hatchling I've ever seen," she teased and spread her wings once more as she backed away further from the other two.

Dylan watched Kira and Cody while Yirshan moved. He put on a feigned look of pleading at Kira, with his lower lip puffed out and his brow seeped with sorrow. The lupari put on a dramatic frown and covered her eyes with her arm, turning to Cody to hide her head behind him. That was all Dylan saw of her, before Yirshan flapped her wings mightily, billowing up another huge blast of sand, this one big enough to obscure his friends from view. Yirshan bent her knees, and leaped upwards with another bat of her wings, propelling her into the air, making Dylan sink heavily into the harness and lurch with the sudden momentum. For a moment, it felt like they were falling back down before the arkatian flapped her wings again, repeating the lurching motion and sending them even higher.

They ascended above the walls of the inner arena, then above the lowest of the audience stands, upward passed the upper rows, and then finally over the edge of the Colosseum. Looking down into it, Dylan saw Kira and Cody looking up as the sand settled around them. They were like two dots gradually getting smaller while Yirshan flew up and up yet further. He looked out over the rest of the city, far higher than when was on top of the Colosseum. The short, squat buildings of an ancient cityscape sprawled out beneath him, the rooftops more diverse and detailed than he recalled the last time he saw them.

Yirshan stopped her climb and rapidly flapped her wings to keep herself hovering in midair, each time making Dylan feel like he was being yanked backwards and up as those enormous appendages flew through the air with loud, whooshing gusts. She spun in place with strong flaps of one wing, letting him see more of the city below them. "Dahashi even added people," Yirshan commented as she looked down curiously at the distant forms striding through the streets far below. "Where do you want to fly first?"

Dylan eagerly scanned the horizon, trying to spot the iconic buildings of Ancient Rome. It didn't take him long to notice the sprawling length of the Circus Maximus as it split up the carpet of buildings like a great gash through the city itself. Trails of dust were getting kicked up from several shapes moving across its length. Chariots, Dylan realized, and he pointed at it for Yirshan to see. "Over there!" he said loudly over the flapping of her wings.

Yirshan peered down at it. "Oh, that's a race if I've ever seen it."

Dylan nodded with a big grin on his face as he watched them move. "Yeah, they're chari-" He abruptly cut himself off when Yirshan suddenly dove downward in a sweeping angle towards the Circus Maximus. Simulated or not, the human still let out a screech of surprise and clung to his harness, imagining himself getting ripped out of it from the sheer force of the wind blowing against his face as the arkatian hurtled like a missile toward the ground.

"Pull up!" he cried when it looked like she was going to crash into the ground, surely ending up with his face grinding along the long, dusty length of the Circus Maximus. "Up!" he shouted even louder and squirmed in the harness. Only a few meters above the ground, Yirshan finally pulled up right in front of the racing charioteers. Horses nickered in surprise and the drivers ducked down as the arkatian raced above their heads, sending the chariots off course, scattering. The crowds in the seats on either side stood up and cheered loudly as Yirshan flew through the middle of the horseshoe shaped spans of the track, right towards the end where the rows on either side converged into a curve of more seating.

A few of the spectators scrambled out of the way, while others gaped or cheered, while Yirshan hurtled towards them, looking as if she'd crash right into the crowd. Dylan held his breath, not saying a thing this time. Again, the arkatian cut it close, and pulled herself upward so closely, that Dylan was able to see the open mouthed looks and smiles of delight of the spectators. Any lower, and he was certain he would have kicked a few in their heads. As Yirshan leveled out to a steady flight over the buildings, so low now that they flew by like a blur, Dylan let out a long breath, deflating from the excitement.

Yirshan bent her head down to look at up him upside down. She grinned toothily at the relieved look on his face, and laughed. "Aw, relax! I'm good at this, and you can't get hurt here."

Dylan gave her a sour, frowning look, his hands still gripping the straps of his harness. "Sure, but I still wanted to see the Circus Maximus, not just blow passed it."

"Oh, fine," Yirshan muttered, then made a lazy turn back around. "Slow and boring it is."

–

It didn't feel right being here without Dylan, Kira thought. This bench, with that statue of a long dead commander, was where she and her charge went together to be alone. It was a place where Dylan could feel at peace with his guardian, with nobody else to loom over him, nobody watching, and they could speak and interact in the comforting, open air. He didn't seem to need this alone time anymore, but the both of them still came here some days, to enjoy a small time of peace together.

Unfortunately, Cody didn't seem to notice how much she liked being here. "How much longer will they be, do you think?" the human asked.

Kira looked down at him, sitting in her hand as she leaned against the bench's backrest, then glanced side long at her yutri sitting on the arm rest, a projection of a clock as big as a theater screen to the human was right above it. "The clock's right there, and you've got a clock."

"Yeah, but it doesn't tell me when they'll be done."

"I told you I don't know."

"Are you sure?"

Kira looked down at him again with a glower, leaning over her breasts. His head was tilted back and he had a ridiculous, huge smile with his small, flat teeth bared. "You're worse than Yirshan. You're toying with me."

"Maybe," he muttered.

Kira eyed him with a flat stare. He rubbed the back of his neck and chuckled awkwardly, looking away. She sighed sadly and sagged on the bench. It was jarring to be with a different human after so much time spent with Dylan. With her usual charge, she'd be on her back by now, with him on her stomach, or her chest, or in her neck fur. She knew Cody was open to that behavior, but beyond a short nuzzle when she first picked him up, and a few strokes with her fingers, she hadn't done much with him. Her nerves were frayed, she knew. Without Dylan nearby, she worried for him. Her mind wandered to him, to how he was doing in the simulation with Yirshan, and she worried if it'd be enough. And, the worst of all, she worried that she wouldn't be able to do anything to help him if it came to the worst with Yirshan.

The ease with which Cody climbed into her hand, compared to that first encounter with Dylan, brought a small smile to her muzzle, but it didn't make her happy. Cody didn't need her. Even after the event with Trikil, he was fine. He wasn't in dire need of an understanding companion. Yirshan turned out to be exactly the kind of guardian that suited him – a friend excited by this whole thing, this vast size difference. Kira might have enjoyed such things if she ended up with Cody in the first place, but she got something better. She got the chance to help someone and end up with a friend that would touch her nose and look at her with such a warm smile. She helped him reach that point. It felt wonderful to just hold him. Thinking how he still needed her made doing the same things with Cody seem less exciting, and a lupari that couldn't get their tail wagging over sharing affections with another likely had something very wrong with them.

She wasn't oblivious. Maduk was at least right in that her connection with Dylan grew so strong in an unusually short amount of time. Even for a lupari, this was strange. Duntay had already taken note of it. Some of the other guardians and charges were physical, so she wasn't alone in this. But nobody expected it from Dylan, a human that locked up in sheer terror the first time he met his guardian, only to get almost intimate with her a month later.

"Cody," Kira said. "Do you think it's strange that Dylan and I are so close? Already?"

"Ah, hm." The human scratched behind his ear." Does it matter?"

The lupari blinked down at him, then looked up and at the statue just in front of her. Her finger moved and gently brushed against his side. "No, I don't think it does."

She felt his tiny hand rub against her finger pad. "You two are happy, and he's gotten a lot better with you. Everyone's just glad he's been getting better. The only weird part is how physical things get, even I know that stuff is weird, but some like it. Some guys like Russell find it disturbing, but we know it's been good for Dylan."

Kira flicked her ear. "Then why does Maduk make it matter so much? Is it a human thing?"

"No. I think he's just an asshole."

She didn't even allow a smirk at the crude, ridiculous swear, and didn't want to make a joke out of it like she certainly would have with Dylan. "I might have said otherwise until he banished his doctor from seeing him."

"Yeah, that was kinda fucked up."

"Was it the war?" Kira asked, looking down at Cody again, her thumb moving away from him. "Could something have happened with the UTO?"

The corporal shrugged. "I don't know. Where I'm from, you'd have a hard time finding someone that disliked you guys. Even those that didn't want Earth to join tended to like the UTO."

"So I've heard," the lupari said, smiling softly at him. "But it's hard to believe everyone has only good things to say."

"Well," Cody muttered and looked down in thought. "Before your all's translators were updated to speak to us, we hardly knew whether we should shoot at you. We just hung back and caught our breaths. It was great to finally have those lizards off our backs. But there were still some fights between us and you guys. But I don't think that caused any long problems."

Kira stared at him, expecting him to go on, but he only squinted at her. "Is that it?" she asked him. "You don't have any idea of why Maduk may act this way?"

Cody looked at her incredulously. "The guy's from Africa. Other side of the world from my home. It's a big place. I don't know what could have happened beyond the usual alien steps on something, or eats a farmer's goat."

The lupari flicked her ear again and sighed with resignation. She leaned back and looked up at the sky, with both of her ears folded. Her eyes slid closed, and she tried to settle her mind enough to enjoy the delicate brushing of a gentle breeze against her whiskers. A laugh from Cody had her ears fold sideways, pointing down towards him, but she didn't move to look down at him.

"You know," he started, settling his laughter. "Near the end of the war, just before you guys blasted the rynar with our nukes, we were getting ready to cross this huge lake. Ah, Ontario. Lake Ontario. To split the rynar during the New York offensive." That got Kira's attention. She lifted her head to look down at him, ears perked up at the mention of the liberation. Cody was looking straight ahead, as if he were talking to the statue of the neishor commander. "We have some amphibious vehicles, right? Apparently, that's not a thing with you guys. So when we were first starting loading up, this APC drove off into the water, going pretty fast, to get craned up onto a ship. This viliti saw it splash into the water, and he just about flipped out like he thought it was sinking. So he jumped right into the water after it. He chased after this thing, wading in the water. The APC, you could hear its engine gunning as it tried to float away at this ridiculous crawling speed they do." Kira smiled at the silly image, and her thumb moved closer to the human. He brushed the fur as he went on, turning his head to look up at her now.

"So, you know, he obviously catches the thing. He picks it up, and tucks it to his chest like he's a kid with a cool new toy. The tracks on it are turning, with water spraying everywhere, but he doesn't let go. He carries it all the way back to shore, and places it down on a road, looking stupidly smug with himself. Then he just walks away like nothing happened."

Kira chuckled, her hand covering her mouth. "Did something happen with the viliti's lenta routine?" she asked, referring to the specie's method of controlling their excitability. It wasn't unheard of for viliti to fall behind on their lenta exercises during stressful times such as combat, and it often led to them acting before thinking.

Cody shrugged. "I dunno, but the rumor was it actually was some kind of punishment for the squad inside of it. They were caught looting, but we needed all the manpower we could get. So some officers worked this out as a punishment."

The lupari's smile was confused as she squinted at the corporal. "I don't understand. How does that fit their crime?"

"I think it was more for morale. It was fucking hilarious. Things were already pretty tense, but seeing that, with that viliti's ears flopping everywhere as he chased this screaming floater, then just stealing the whole thing away." He shook his head, laughing softly to himself. "Then getting to see those guys fall out the back door in a daze. They had all their armor on and stuff, so I bet it was staged. We ditched most of all that, it was just a liability against the rynar, so they must have been wearing it for protection."

"Did you ever find out the truth?"

"Nah. They were from another division, and I got a little too busy worrying about getting on a ship. Seasickness is a bitch."

Kira leered at him, a smile turning up her lips. “I don't see what I have to do with that."

Cody raised a single brow. “What?" His other brow went up in a show of surprise. “Oh. That actually translates?"

Kira was just about to tell him that she didn't even listen to her translator half the time when her yutri pinged with an urgent message. Her ears flicked at the noise and her blue eyes darted to the arm rest, while Cody jumped in her hand, his little body twitching with surprise. She didn't think he was the jumpy type, she briefly thought before squinting at the message projecting over the clock.

It was a message from Dahashi, telling her that Dylan and Yirshan were about to quit the simulations. It was exactly what she'd been waiting for. She grabbed her yutri and stuffed the device into her pocket, not caring to attach it to her wrist interface with Cody occupying her other hand, then hastily got to her paws. She cupped her free hand around her carry hand to protect her passenger as she made a brisk walk back to the simulation hive. It was time.

Cody stayed mercifully silent as she walked, letting Kira think. What could she say to Dylan to make this easier for him? Would she have to stay close to him to let him get used to Yirshan? She was certain she'd have to. But what if he didn't get used to the arkatian before Maduk saw them? She knew he was beyond his fears by now. It was the unexpected, subconscious developments they had to worry about. That was what she feared the most. She couldn't predict those, and neither could Dylan. She could only prevent them with her presence and reassurances. But if she wasn't there, and he was alone with Yirshan, where Maduk could see them…

Kira's boots, damp from the wet ground from last night's rainfall, thumped onto the floor of the simulation hive as she walked through the door and made straight for the human section. She saw Dylan there, already waiting on the catwalk on one side of the pad, along with Yirshan nearby, speaking with him.

Yirshan canted her head as she approached. “Why did you two leave early?" she asked.

Kira nodded down at Cody as she let her hand down onto the transfer pad for him to hop off. “He got tired of me beating him in sparring and I didn't feel like playing any games."

Cody waved his hand dismissively, walking off the pad. “I think she just likes kicking me in the face."

The arkatian snorted. “She was just doing that to shut you up."

Despite her worry for the situation, Kira couldn't help but smile and laugh. Cody complained and spoke a lot during the sparring. Yirshan certainly knew her charge. Her smile only broadened when Dylan strode passed Cody to Kira's still waiting hand. He climbed aboard, and the lupari's tail gave a short wag over the familiarity. Dylan was ever so slightly lighter that Cody, and he'd get to his knees and slide onto her pads, where Cody would step up on his boots before sitting. "So," Kira said once her charge was settled, letting her lift her hand and tuck it to her stomach. "How did it go with you two?"

Dylan answered first, "It was pretty fun. Dahashi's simulation is amazing."

Yirshan flicked an ear in agreement and went over to collect Cody. "Those chariot races are interesting. I'll have to see what it is like to be rushed around by neishor."

"Yeah," Cody said. "You just want to whip them." Kira couldn't see Cody as Yirshan picked him up, but she could imagine his satisfaction with his chance to get back at his guardian.

Yirshan's wings fluttered lightly as she shrugged. "What can I say? I have special tastes."

"Hey," Kira said. "I'm going to go ahead with Dylan before you two start getting frisky."

She turned to leave, and Yirshan said after her, "We'll be right behind you."

Once she was out of the building, with the other two a ways behind her, Kira's thumb shifted to settle on Dylan's lap, where his hands went straight to brushing her fur. "How was Yirshan?" the lupari asked. She looked down at him, and her nostrils flared as she focused on him.

"She was good," he said, looking back up at her. Kira squinted, disbelieving. She couldn't easily read lies, but she saw and smelled his discomfort, and she didn't believe Yirshan would just be 'good.' Dylan scoffed with wry amusement, recognizing her disbelief with ease. "She seems impatient. She'll listen, but likes going straight to her ideas. I think she might be an adrenaline junky, as well."

That was more like Yirshan, Kira thought. "Do you think that will be a problem?" she asked, her brow creased with worry.

"I don't think so," Dylan muttered. "I hope not." She felt him squeeze her thumb fur. "What happens, happens. How was your time with Cody?"

Kira appreciated the chance to move onto something else. It wasn't like her to fret so much. "I get the feeling the incident with Trikil changed him. And not in a bad way. I believe he's become more open and bold. Quicker to speak his mind."

"You're saying that whole thing actually made him better?"

"It could have been Yirshan, actually. She's the type to insist someone to bare their fangs more."

"I don't know," Dylan said, disbelieving. "She seemed agitated when I told her to stop flying like a lunatic in the sims and show me the sights."

"But you said she listened," Kira implored. "She acts huffy, but she respects you more if you voice your thoughts. She probably had a talk with Cody about that, because I'm certain Trikil got worse because Cody didn't speak against him."

"Yeah," Dylan agreed. "I think I noticed that too. Cody's definitely taken to back talk with Yirshan."

"As he should. Your humans being afraid of baring your teeth is something that many are worried about. Your voice is supposed to be as important as the rest of ours, if not more when you look at how it went with Trikil. Falashai can be far too oblivious with picking up hints. He'll just need to make sure he doesn't act like that when it's time to listen to rank."

It was good to talk about things other than the pressing concern of exchanging charges and guardians. Kira felt more at ease by the time she reached their usual spot, with the familiar four benches and neishor statue. Her tail even had a wag to it as she walked. She'd need to be positive for Dylan.

--

Dylan sat in Kira's hand, as usual, with it rest in her lap, letting him see Yirshan approaching with her own charge in hand. He swallowed nervously and brushed his guardian's thumb fur. The digit shifted, and pressed gently back into his front, trying to reassure him. "Let's just get it over with as quick as possible," he said without taking his eyes off of the approaching arkatian.

Kira beckoned Yirshan to sit next to her. The arkatian's enormous size was always a little unnerving, with the way she cast a larger shadow, displaced just that much more air as she moved, and every part of her was simply larger than what Kira had, right down to the claws on the ends of her fingers. But Dylan pushed that away as she sat down next to them, with Kira hardly coming to her shoulder. Her size wasn't the problem. They all were huge. A dozen feet hardly made much of a difference when they all dwarfed several story tall buildings.

He didn't notice any words they may have said, any reassurances Kira may have said to him. He simply focused, preparing himself. He steeled his mind from any wandering thoughts. He had to do this, or Maduk would ruin everything he'd clung to, to escape these very thoughts. He only spared Cody a glance as Kira and Yirshan pressed their hands side by side, letting the human step over to Kira. His eyes stayed on Yirshan's stomach, where he'd come to rest soon enough. Calm, collected, and ready to show how wrong Maduk was.

He finally looked down when the light yellow scales of Yirshan's palm sat before him, ready to accept him. The scales were creased where it pressed against the side of Kira's hand. His guardian's thumb lifted from his lap, and he eased himself to his feet. He felt her thumb brush against his side, helping him to take that first step after only a moment of hesitation. His boot lifted from yielding, leathery padding to touch down onto the firmness of scales. Then, his other joined him, and like the dozens of times he done with Kira, he sat down, crossing his legs.

There was more room on Yirshan's hand, Dylan realized. He could stretch out his legs and his feet would barely reach the end of her palm. He blinked, and then smiled. He was thinking of the ergonomics of a non-human's hand. Something so mundane. He looked up at Yirshan as she moved her hand into her lap to look down at him. She was watching with a concerned frown, but the sight of his smile brought a perk to her ears, and she smiled.

Her golden eyes glinted with amusement, and her sharp white teeth seemed to sparkle, like moonlight shining off of snow. Dylan shivered as his fingers went cold, shooting chills up his arms. His smile faded to a blank look, blinking up at the arkatian looming so far above.

The images of a rynar flashed into his mind, distorting the arkatian's image. Snow, lit only by the light of the moon filled the world behind her. The moonlight made the rynar's teeth glint, as it smiled cruelly. Voices hammered into his mind – cries of terror, shouts to move.

He closed his eyes to try to make it stop. When they opened again, he was looking up at a dark house, with only a dull glow coming through the cracks between the wood of the boarded up basement window. The billowing wind swirled falling snow across the driveway in front of him, and into the tall trees of the forest, slowly swaying in the storm. Dylan reached up and pulled on his scarf, revealing his whole face. He stuffed it into one of the pockets of his thick, black winter coat. He pulled down his hood, revealing an olive colored, woolen hat.

Dylan looked back at the truck sitting in the street, its green color appearing black through the darkness and layer of snow atop it. Its lights and engine were off, with one of his platoon mates, Tobias waiting in the driver's seat for him, and protecting their vehicle. Fuel was difficult to come by, but trained men even more so. Both of them would get some kind of penal duty after this, but that was all.

He hoped it was worth it. Anybody could be in this house, held up in one of the many homes that survived the bombardment of inner Annapolis, adhering to the strict curfew their occupiers placed upon them. Language barrier aside, the message was simple - nobody was safe at night. But, he had to be sure; he had to be absolutely certain. Dylan reached into one of the large pockets of his fatigues, and pulled out his issued handgun. It was worthless against the invaders, barely even able to earn their attention, but such weapons still stuck around, with the threat of desperate men often even more of a danger than the invaders.

With a firm grip on the handgun, Dylan trudged through the snow and up to the door of the house. He balled his gloved hands into a fist, and banged it against the door, making sure it was loud enough to hear through the winter storm. He couldn't hear anything inside, with the wind blowing into his ears, until a few seconds later her heard a loud shout from a male voice, "Get the fuck out of here!"

Dylan swallowed, his mouth and throat unexpectedly dry. "It's me," he called back, face close to the door. "Dylan! Is this Ryan?"

The thumping and sliding of furniture came from the other side of the door. The clicking of locks, and the turning of the door knob made him lower his gun, hiding it behind his back. He prayed this was who he hoped when the door flung open. A flash light shined into his face, and he saw the barrel of a gun pointed straight at him. There was a brief moment of silence, and the gun lowered. "Dylan," a familiar voice muttered, soft with surprise. "Holy shit, get in here!" The silhouette of the man stepped aside and flicked his flashlight off. Once Dylan closed the door around him, he felt the man wrap his arms around him into a hug, hand patting his back. "You're alive," he said, his voice quavering.

Dylan hugged him back, his face scrunching up with tears. "Is mom okay?" he asked.

Ryan pulled away, but kept his arms on Dylan's shoulders. "Yeah, man, she is. Welcome home."

Warmth enveloped Dylan, soft like fur. His eyes closed in a blink, only to open again to see Kira's blue eyes looking down at him. He was cupped in one of her hands, while the other gently brushed its fingers along his body. He felt tears running down his cheeks, warm and wet. He sucked air in through his teeth, sobbing. He squeezed one of her fingers, making her stop her brushing. His jaw quivered, trying to hold back his cries. "I miss them," he said up to her, his voice soft and straining for air.

Kira's eyes furrowed with sorrow and she flicked her attention up to Yirshan, with Cody in her hand. "Please leave us," she pleaded.

Neither one of them said a word, and once Dylan heard Yirshan's footsteps vanish with distance, a sob wracked his body, and Kira's muzzle came down, gently nuzzling him as she set to the task of easing the pain of a friend.