Across long distances and vast plains, my future lies nowhere.

Neku watched Ahrach.
"Raven," She said slowly, "I know that Karthragan was a wolf, and that Dementius was a panther, but what was his parent demon? I've never heard of a duck demon!"
"Neku," Raven hissed dangerously.
"A chicken demon?" Neku asked.

Ahrach stared at Neku incredulously. If the girl had only been paying slightly more attention, she would've noticed the great feminine figure just behind her, with glistening, evil eyes, glaring down at her. A gun pointed dangerously towards the back of the girl's head glinted in the moonlight.
"Who're you calling a chicken demon, little nuisance?" Erelx snarled, her index on the trigger twitching nervously. Ahrach sighed, lifting one hand to tell Erelx to aim the weapon away.
"Erelx," he began quietly, "take the gun away... Knowing you, you would shoot before the girl had a second chance."
"I'm not a lottery scum, okay? Second chance! Pfft."
"Just get the gun away, all right? If you shoot the girl, you'll also shoot me in the process," Ahrach mumbled.

Raven looked at the figure behind Neku.
"Erm, maybe we should be ocncentrating on the thing behind Neku at the moment?" She said slowly, getting to her feet. She drew one of her swords, swinging it in her hand to loosen up her wrist. Neku scrambled away, summoning her crimson magic to defend herself.

The figure cackled, and Ahrach's eyes widened. Already?! He thought, his mind racing. He quickly slid on the ground, then pushed off his hands in order to kick the gun out of the silhouette's hand. It dodged it easily, and slammed one foot on Ahrach's back, pinning him to the ground. She stuck the canon of the gun right on his neck. A click of another gun flicked in the darkness as Erelx appeared at the image's side, a pistole pointed at it's head. The image ducked, releasing Ahrach, and dodging Erelx's shot. The form in the shadows twirled and kicked Erelx's hand, sending her weapon in the air. She grabbed it and aimed it at Erelx. The crow kuijin swiftly retaliated by punching the figure in the air, sending it to the ground. Erelx landed on the ground, grabbing another pistole from her hip and aiming it at the image as she stepped forwards. The shadow then sat up, grabbed Erelx by her calves and flipped her over her head. Erelx landed heavily on her back, and she snarled at the silhouette. Erelx leaped into the shadows to grab the person, and then there was a violent fist-and-kick combat. A dangerous dance between two particular shapes, dodging, blocking and hitting one another at calculated speeds. Both darkened images then hit each other at the same time and they both stepped out of the shadows, each one adopting the same fighting position.
Ahrach muttered a curse word under his breath as he noticed what he saw. Two identical beings, stepping out from the shadows. Two Erelx.
"Don't even move! Both of you!" Ahrach yelled, grabbing a pistole on the ground and pointing it at one of them, flicking from one to the other nervously.
"What the hell are you doing, Ahrach?! She's the - oh... Sh--." One of the Erelxes muttered under her breath as she noticed the other one. "Shut up!" the other Erelx snarled, "You think I'm that stupid? Shoot her down!"
"Shut your trap, or I'll blow you to Hell and back!" Ahrach snarled, not any more to one than to the other. He glanced at one and the other, gulping down his anxiety. Ahrach looked back to Raven, and shifted next to her. He kept his head lowered and he whispered to her.
"Talk head lowered, and whispering. Both of them know how to lip-read. Please don't do anything on this one. My body may be frail, I can recognize her whenever I want. Keep protecting Neku. You're doing fine." Ahrach lifted his eyes to both of them, eying their movements closely. Each of their twitches, he could recognize. The thing is, she didn't need to know exactly how someone moves to be able to reproduce every movement.

Raven narrowed her eyes, the fight happening too fast for her to be able to do anything. She ducked her head to answer Ahrach.
"Neku can look after herself. I've never met a nastier prankster..." She muttered. As the demoness spoke, the crimson haired child was wandering over to the two Erelexes with a look of complete child-like innocence on her face. She smiled sweetly, smoothly morphing into her tiger cub form and climbing up onto one of the Erelexes' head, curling up and starting to purr, looking like a rather big furry hat.

The Erelx on which a tiger cub was sleeping lifted one quick hand and snatched the animal by the tail, twirling it before flinging it at Ahrach. Ahrach stepped aside, letting the tiger fly by, then aimed the gun at one of the Erelxes. Ahrach frowned and shot at the ground, right next to the foot of one of them.
"You!" he snarled, "Your disguise does not get past my eyes. Show yourself, Thalieth!"
The Erelx sneered, gazing enviously at Ahrach. A sly glint appeared in her eyes, as she stepped back into the shadows. Her form shifted and changed, until being a completely different person. A girl, who seemed about sixteen, walked out of the shadows, graceful arms spread out in some sort of welcoming hug to greet Ahrach. He snarled back, lifting his gun. "Don't approach me."
"Would you actually hurt me, Ahrach?" she replied teasingly.
"Who the hell's she?!" the real Erelx growled, stepping next to Ahrach.

Raven gritted her teeth. The tiger cub was teetering around, dazed from a head on collision with the tree.
"Oh, I hate shapeshifters!" Raven growled just before she summoned her magic, throwing a column of the dark energy at the creature.

Ahrach twitched as he saw Raven's magic, and he quickly pushed them down, but only a bit too late. The magic twirled towards Thalieth, and she swiftly dodged it, a mocking smile on her face. Erelx lifted her gun, index on the trigger, aiming at Thalieth.
"Erelx! Don't!" Ahrach snarled, jumping from Raven to his sister. He slammed into her, pushing her over just as she shot. The bullet hit a tree right next to Thalieth. The shapeshifter sneered, gazing at Ahrach as he pulled himself away from my sister.
"Ahrach, da-- it! On who's side are you?!" Erelx roared.
"On yours!" he snapped, "But you must not kill her!"
"Why the fu-- not?!"
"Just. Don't!" Ahrach hissed, turning back to Thalieth and aiming his gun at her. "And you, don't even dare move."
Thalieth's sneer stretched. She opened up her arms to Ahrach, an innocent smile replacing the ominous expression she had beforehand. "Ahrach..." she murmured, "You aren't going to kill me, aren't you?" As she spoke, she took steps dangerously closer to him. He shot at her feet, before lifting the weapon once more.
"Stay where you are, I say! Or I swear something bad is going to happen!" he warned.
Thalieth cackled. "What can you do, Ahrach?" she whispered to him. Ahrach stuck the canon of the gun to the side of his head.
"I can do this," Ahrach answered.

Raven crashed to the ground, only to spring back up again. Rage was starting to boil up within her as she looked daggers at Thalieth. She prepared another magical strike, aiming to fire until Ahrach raised the gun to his head.
"Ahrach, don't!" She yelled in a heartwrenching plea, lunging for him, aiming to wrap one arm around his shoulders and use her other hand to point the gun to the ground, out of range of anyone. She lifted her eyes to Thalieth.
"What do you want with him?"

Ahrach growled at Raven, pulling himself out of her grasp and reaching over to his sister, snatching her pistole and again placing it to his head. Erelx didn't move, backing away from her brother. Thalieth grunted, scoffing at Ahrach. She flicked her head arrogantly back at Raven, grimacing at her.
"What do I want with him?" she asked, a sly grin appearing on her face, "My wishes are not of your concern."
"She wants to take me back to the Lab, in order to make me suffer more experimental tortures," Ahrach snarled.
"Having him experimented makes me stronger. More pieces for my body, if you let me call it that," Thalieth cackled. "The reason I can only do it with him is that he's the only one with the compatible gen-"
"Shut your trap, you revolting being!" Ahrach warned, his index tensing on the trigger.
Thalieth chuckled under her breath. "... Father?"
"I said shut your mouth!" Ahrach roared, "Don't ever call me that!"

Raven gritted her teeth. One part of her was saying Hold the phone, back up a minute! Did she just say FATHER?!, but the other part of her wanted to rip the girl's throat out. Instead, she spoke quietly to Ahrach.
"That's why you won't let us kill her, isn't it." She said through her gritted teeth. "She's your daughter." She turned to Thalieth, and narrowed her eyes.
"I lost my own children to your people! If you dare take Ahrach, then I swear, I will personally hunt you down and rip out your innards to feed to the crows!"

"She is not my daughter!" Ahrach hissed, his hand tensing on the weapon. Thalieth smirked.
"I heard that, daddy," she teased.
"Thalieth is a creation. An engineered being," Ahrach rashly explained, "I was the experiment dummy at the time, so they used my genes, melted along with some double-sex frog, a chameleon, and something else, enabling her to completely shapeshift into anything she wanted, thanks to my little power. I should've killed myself sooner. A monster like her could've been prevented."
"A monster?" Thalieth murmured to herself, lowering her head, "Why are you calling me a monster, daddy?"
"I swear I'm going to blow my head off the next time you utter those words, Thalieth!" Ahrach shouted.
"Father, don't deny it... You treated me like a child. You gave me love. You even gave me my name," she replied.
"That was before you ever became such a twisted being!" Ahrach regressed, "You're manipulated by those humans! Used as an object!"
"And in return, I get more powerful. Just what I want," Thalieth answered, "Come back with me, father..."
"Thalieth!" Ahrach yelled.

Raven closed her eyes for a moment, grimacing. She was trying to hold back tears, but didn't want the other two to know. The demoness took a deep breath, stepping in front of Ahrach, unsheathing her two katana swords and laid them on the ground.
"You want power? Take me." She hissed. "I lost two of the things I held closest to my heart. Your people took my daughters. I won't let you take a third from my heart, so take me instead."

Thalieth smirked, laughing at Raven's attempt. "You? Power? Look at you!" she teased, pointing her finger, "You're about to go on your knees and beg me to take you instead." Thalieth leaned over slightly to Raven. "I call that being weak and fragile. You don't hold any power that I could use. I couldn't use anything from you. Crawl back to your hole." Thalieth grazed her hand on Raven's shoulder, before pushing her away. She stepped on the two swords, pinning them down. She sneered at Ahrach, who still had the pistole pointed to the side of his head. His face bore an air of statuesque impression, reflecting nothing. Seconds ago, he had just been in plain rage, whilst now he had changed to a stone wall.
"You aren't going to kill yourself, are you?" Thalieth murmured to Ahrach, placing her hand on the weapon, gently pulling it away from his head. She flicked the gun away, letting it fall to the floor. "Let that woman be, and come back with me, father."
Ahrach silently spoke under his breath, speaking unintelligible words. Thalieth leaned over, cocking her head. "Excuse me?" she asked.
"You're just being an idiot," he snapped. Thalieth pulled away from him, frowning. He stared at her, as ice as before. "you've got some nerve to dismiss people like that." Thalieth was confused, and she took a few steps back as Ahrach tilted his head and grabbed the pistole on the ground. He then took one step closer. "You've got to go back to the Lab, don't you?" he asked. "Pity. Well, when you get your head back there, tell them this: 3-4473 is dead. Long gone, up there, whatever you want. But he is not here anymore. And do you know what that'll give you? Liberty. You are nothing without it. Find a small paper hidden in the corner of my bed in my cell. Show it to them. Then you are free, and you can chase me again. But until then," Ahrach lifted his gun, slamming it right on Thalieth's forehead and pinned her down on the ground with as much strength as he could muster. "Until then," he continued in a harsh voice, Thalieth, the next time I see you, you will die by my hands, and the same goes for me."
"Now you're the one being an idiot, father," she replied, brushing the pistole off and sliding out from under Ahrach's grasp. "If they're not here, how will I get more powerful? And how will you know that I ever gave the paper."
"For the first question, you'll see," Ahrach strictly replied, "even if I'm physically different, my memory remains the same. As for the second - trust me, I'll know."

Raven was trembling. Every nerve ending in her body was on fire. She looked up with split red eyes. Her breathing was deep and laboured.
"If weakness... Is giving your life for someone else's... Then you are the strongest person on this Earth." She chuckled quietly. "And also the weakest, if there is no one... You would give your life for."

Raven morphed, for the first time. A raven/wolf hybrid. Talons had sprouted from the paws, huge wings from her shoulders. The horse-sized hybrid gave a strange noise, but it was obviously threatening Thalieth.

Erelx's eyes widened at Raven's sight, and she swiftly dashed towards Ahrach, snatching the pistole from his hand. "Ahrach, Da-- it! Look around you!" she yelled, pointing the gun at Raven. Ahrach pulled his sister's shoulder back, placing a hand on the gun.
"Do not shoot!" he ordered, "When people become consumed by emotion, killing them is the only way to make them stop immediately! Pain will only aggravate things until death ensues!"
Ahrach glanced dangerously at Thalieth. "You. If I see you again before you have left the Lab, I swear I'm going to kill you."
Thalieth grinned, before sweeping into the shadows. The whites of her teeth were the only things which shone in the dark before she disappeared. Ahrach turned back to Raven.
"Calm down!" he urged, taking a step closer.

The strange hybrid looked at Ahrach with her four eyes. She seemed to be contemplating something. The light that filtered through the trees glinted off her feather covered body. The body was that of a wolf, despite the feathering. Raven wings were tucked neatly into her sides. Her head was slightly more slender and birdlike than a normal wolf. Instead of claws, her paws bore talons. The creature looked confused, its gaze switching between itself and Ahrach.

Ahrach seemed confident in himself. He had never seen Raven like this, nor had he ever wished to. But now that he couldn't go back, he had to deal with it. Something that he had gotten used to in the Lab. He approached the morph, lifting one delicate hand to its muzzle. He didn't want to frighten or seem to intimidate Raven. She was still there, staring at him and he knew that. With his other hand, he swayed it to Erelx, to tell her to drop the gun. She understood and lowered her weapon, but still keeping it in her hand. Ahrach took another step, only one meter separating the two.
"Raven," he murmured.

The creature looked at Ahrach again, and slowly began to morph, melting back into Raven's shape. She drew a shaking breath, looking towards the spot where Thalieth had vanished. She set her jaw, her brow furrowing. She was going to hunt down that girl, she would go anywhere in the world, just to kill her.

Ahrach took a few steps closer as the creature began to shape back into its original form. As Raven's body appeared, he grabbed her two hands in his, gazing into her eyes as to try to speak to her directly. His hands tensed on hers, long fingers coiling on her palms.
"Raven," he whispered, "you scared me just now."
Erelx gave a sigh of relief, turning around to stare where Thalieth had disappeared.

Raven turned her violet gaze to Ahrach, and blushed a little.
"I'm sorry," She said quietly, looking down at their joined hands. "That was my full demonic form. I was so... angry... at Thalieth... I... Couldn't stop it from bursting out..." Raven didn't look up at Ahrach, embarassed by her lck of control. Locks of her short violet hair fell over her eyes as she closed them.

"Fully demonic," Ahrach repeated quietly, "well, that was an at-least-once-in-a-lifetime-experience. I hope that it won't happen too many times." Ahrach let go of Raven's hands, glancing at Erelx before setting his gaze on Raven again. "Thalieth won't come back for at least a month, hopefully. The time we don't see her depends on two things - the Lab's decision, and how well we hide from her. I'm not going to resolute to hide all the time, so I must admit that we're going to see her a second time, whatever we do. May it be in weeks, months, or years, we must stay prepared. As she grows, she becomes smarter, and thus more powerful. She will want to have more power after she finds me, and I know just what to do."

"And I'll be right next to you," Raven said, smiling slightly at Ahrach. "I owe those bastards a good buttcicking, and what I gave them earlier wasn't enough. It's not enough to pay for what they stole from me." She said the last sentence more to herself than to anyone else. One of her private thoughts that even the demonic clan didn't know.

Ahrach nodded quickly, turning to Erelx. "Erelx!" he shouted, attracting her attention, "how far away is the Lab from your residential area?"
"Miles," Erelx answered, putting her hands on her hips, "twenty hands wouldn't be able to count them all. And I can't even be sure now, since we teleported away from the Lab. Although, that girl did find us quickly."
"She always does. Never gets lost, and she's been trained to hunt," Ahrach replied quickly. "We must stay away from your family, Raven. I do not wish to get them into this, dangerously close to the Lab I mean. We must depart for Erelx's home."
"You crazy?" she snapped, "If there are men down there, we'll get spotted in no time. If we don't get found out immediately, it'll take more than half of a day to get there, at full speed, without stopping."
Ahrach stepped closer to his sister. "Erelx, I'll tell you one thing. I've been through crazy transformations your mind wouldn't even go to, and I've been literally tortured down there. My will to flee this area greatly surpasses my body's energy. We need it to recover, then we'll have to move."
"Do you know how hard it is to move constantly?!" Erelx shouted.
"We did it when we were young, Erelx, we can do it again," Ahrach answered simply, looking up at Raven. "Think you'll manage?"

Raven listened to their concersation, carefully monitering her emotions so as not to change back into her full demonic form. It had already been a discomforting experiance. She didn't want to repeat it, ever in her life. She looked at Ahrach as he asked her if she would manage.
"I'll manage," She confirmed. "My form isn't as big as yours though, but I'll keep up, even if I have to teleport."