Gira’s triumphant grin began to fade as the situation began to sink in. Wide-eyed, he looked around. The Dragonbone Chamber was completely trashed. He was stark naked. And the pool of blood seeping from Gael was slowly growing under his unconscious body.

  “OH FIDDLEFUCK—WE’RE SCREWED!” Gira yelled, panic tightening his voice as he dropped to his knees beside Gael. “We gotta get him to the medbay!”

  “Well then get up and do it!” Berserkrios snapped impatiently.

  “Ugh... my legs,” Gira groaned, wincing as he tried to move. “They're completely numb.”

  “This is what we get for recklessly using our abilities with so little Kyyr available…” Berserkrios muttered bitterly, “Savagrios, are you there?”

  No answer… Berserkrios adjusted his vision within the throne. Peacefully sleeping on one of the nearby couches like a leaf on a riverbed was Savagrios dreaming of sweet tomorrows.

  That idiot already checked himself out…!

  “Berserkrios, what do we do?” Gira pleaded as he felt the stinging sensation of a million microscopic blades crawling up his arms.

  Berserkrios hesitated, catching himself as he stared down at their only option. Oh, fuck off… With a sigh, he bitterly mumbled. “Drink his blood.”

  “Huh?! Eww—no way!” Gira recoiled, waving his hands in defiance before shuddering as the pain reminded him of his situation.

  “What do you mean, ‘ew’? If that idiot dies, we're screwed!”

  “But like—he’s some greasy, bloody dude.” Gira complained his nose wrinkling in disgust. Hmmm… Maybe Mera wasn’t wrong about the pure maiden thing.

  “Stop thinking about stupid shit now! Just—ugh… I’ll do it! Let me take over!”

  “Fine, just tell me when it’s over!”

  “Shut up!”

  And with that, Gael was promptly delivered to the medbay by a blood-soaked, blue-eyed, naked Gira. His mouth was marred in streaks of red as he painfully stared at the shattered aquarium across from the medbay entrance. There was no luster or joy coming from Berserkrios as he tried to find some solace in the white stone walls of the hall.

  Gira and Berserkrios had both taken unfortunate psychological damage.

  We sucked off some sweaty half-dead guy… Gira mumbled uneasily.

  “SHUT UP! WORDING!” Berserkrios snapped immediately, tears forming at the corners of his eyes.

  Huh, what’s wrong?

  Berserkrios's eye twitched. “Ugh, right, you wouldn’t understand…”

  Understand what?

  Berserkrios put his hands against his temple. “D-don’t worry about it for now.We have bigger problems. Let’s get washed up first and get some clothes.”

  Right….

  Berserkrios let out an exhausted sigh, slumping against the cold stone wall, knees giving out beneath him. “Okay… First off—I can’t believe we got so lucky!” Berserkrios put his head against his knees, the chilly breeze wrapping around his naked body, causing him to shudder. “Gaels’ arrogance and blood loss were definitely our saving grace, dulling his judgment. I’m also guessing that ability usually gets him victories out of mind and out of sight. Our prolonged fight ended up being his downfall.”

  Makes you wonder what kind of other abilities the rangers have…

  Berserkrios stared blankly at the wall ahead. “Gira, this fight was definitely the wake-up call we needed. Considering how Gael acted, the rangers are clearly not as homogenous as we initially thought… To think one held enough hidden vice to decide to kill us for spooking him. This whole time he was probably torturing us on purpose with that supposed training. The poor idiot was probably getting frustrated with how naive you were.”

  Naive? Huh? Then how come he didn’t let us bleed out?!

  “Judging by his personality, he probably wanted a justification. He might’ve had a pretty cowardly ability, but he kept trying to carry on with an air of dignity. It makes me wonder to what degree do Kyyr abilities reflect the user’s true nature, if at all.” Berserkrios felt their muscles shudder as the lack of Kyyr stung at their skin like alcohol on an open wound. “Ugh… We need to get cleaned up and figure out how to get some Kyyr in our system so we don’t pass out. That ‘full-partial’—ugh. We need a better name for it!”

  It’s a mouthful, huh? It sucks to say, huh? B-e-r-s-e-r-k-r-i-o-s

  Berserkios shook his head, putting his weight on the cold stone wall as he got up. “How about we call it our Nascent Form?”

  Nascent Form?

  “Or would you prefer ‘full-partial transformation’?”

  Nascent it is!

  Berserkrios smiled faintly as he began to wobble down the hall. “Our Nascent Form is a pretty big breakthrough for us. It’s a lot less taxing, but our scales are soft and our constructs weak. If we’d fully transformed at the beach, we would’ve torn Gael’s limbs clean off. But—” he paused as he pushed against the heavy stone door that led to gardens. “All things considered, it’s better than being in our human form. Not to mention the recoil so far has been only carnal in nature.”

  So should it become our go-to form?

  “Not necessarily—but until we bid Esthes-3 farewell, it might be our best option.”

  Farewell? What do you mean?

  Berserkrios leaned against one of the many pillars that overlooked the peaceful waters of the gardens. “Gira—I know our days on this planet have been short, but even you must surely have questions. Who were we, or rather—what are we?”

  Gira floated amidst the throne, his eyes peering through Berserkrios and up into the blue sky—the faded scar across the sky beckoning him away.

  You’re right… these faded memories. These people that we used to be. What does it all mean?

  Berserkrios felt relieved as he pushed himself off the stone pillar painfully as he continued to make his way back to the ranger lodge. “But before we consider getting off this rock, we need to establish three goals.”

  Gira nodded internally. Mhm?

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  “First off, we need to prove ourselves in front of the rangers here. Whether they choose to respect us or fear us will be up to them.”

  Fear us?

  “You mustn’t forget what we are, Gira.” Berserkios reached the lodge’s main entrance, his hand pressing lightly on the synthetic wood door.

  But—

  “Listen, fear isn’t inherently bad. Through fear we can at least understand and perhaps even mend the terror of uncertainty. If we are to be feared, we should be feared for the right reasons. What we should be worrying about is blind fear.” He wobbled into the ranger’s shower room. “Blind fear is prejudice, dangerous, unpredictable, messy…” He tapped on the screen outside the shower room, tapping on the buttons until warm water began to dance within the foggy chamber. “It is a restless unknown—and right now—we’re one big crimson unknown.” Berserkrios tested the water with his hand, pulling it back quickly as he tampered with another screen inside the shower chamber. “But if we can show them what we are, they can at the very least form opinions based on facts rather than their own delusions. We must let the fear reveal them, not us. After all, we at the very least can control their reactions to some extent.” The warm water cascaded down his hair and neck.

  So—by that logic, wouldn’t we be mega screwed if anyone saw the beat-up Gael and the mess we left behind in the manor?

  The soothing embrace of the water suddenly felt frigid as Berserkrios’s eyes shot open. “By Abelais, you’re fucking right…” he groaned, brushing soap off his hair. “We need to somehow get to M?ry’Plu and explain ourselves before anyone comes back…” Berserkrios’s shoulders drooped as he slowly turned to shut the water off. “Ugh… let’s worry about one thing at a time…” Berserkrios clicked on the drying button on the screen, causing the shower chamber to suddenly blast him with warm air. “By the Fifteen, I’m not a fan of that…”

  What about the two other goal thingies?

  “Right, right,” He waved his hand as he pushed a button, getting a fresh set of lounge wear delivered to the chamber. “Our second goal will be to show our utility. During this upcoming Penthestat, we must overwhelm the abyss with our might.”

  Mhm, makes sense.

  “Our final goal for the time being should be learning how to use our Kyyr as efficiently as possible. Luckily, that Nascent Form Savagrios came up with was a huge step in the right direction.” Berserkrios finished putting the loungewear on as they walked to a vending machine in the corner of the room and clicked some buttons before getting a blue drink dispensed.

  Alright, cool! But what about Gael and the manor?

  “Right… the maintenance mechanoids should already have started working on repairs. We just need to find a comms terminal to call Morray or Serfet.”

  Why not use our crystalcomm?

  “Didn’t we lose it back at the beach?”

  What? No, I rarely use it, so I usually leave it back at our room.

  “Oh. Well, that saves us some time. Who do you want to contact, Morray or Serfet?”

  Either works.

  The weary Berserkrios crawled up to the second floor of the lodge and wobbled into their room, falling face-first into their bed. “Mmkay, mmeremmmmmm…” he mumbled into their pillows before abruptly jolting upright. “Wait a fucking second—you idiot—we don’t have their contact information!”

  Ohhhh. True, but can’t we call someone else to help us?

  “Who? Lucas has been MIA for over ten days; we barely know Aria, so that leaves… Xizu! She’s also their sister!” Berserkrios shot up from the bed, a spark of realization flaring in his eyes.

  Uhh… but we’ve been ignoring her calls—and we almost ate her daughter!

  “So what? She was kind enough to look after us while we were in coma so she can’t be that mad?” Berserkrios fumbled with their crystalcomm until he reached their contacts.

  Yeah but that was before we went all blood crazy. Plus, there’s something scary about her.

  “Well I’d rather not get killed by the rangers—” Berserkrios clicked the call button on Xizu’s contact.

  Ring… ring….

  They stared nervously at the screen, Berserkrios impatient, Gira trembling.

  Berserkrios I don’t like this.

  “Shhh, she’ll answer any sec—”

  “YOU LITTLE COWARD YOU FINALLY DECIDED TO CALL, HUH?!”

  Eeek! Gira huddled next to the knocked-out Savagrios.

  “I’VE BEEN CALLING FOR DAYS YOU LITTLE SHRIMP! WHY WEREN’T YOU ANSWERING MY CALLS WE WERE WORRIED YOU KNOW?” Xizu’s furious voice erupted through the crystalcomm.

  “Umm well—” Berserkrios desperately tried to get a word in.

  “WELL? WELL, WHAT?!”

  “Well, uhh hello… I’m Gira but not exactly the same Gira and I really need a favor—”

  “A FAVOR? THE FUCKING GALL! I TOOK CARE OF YOU FOR MONTHS AND THEN YOU JUST LEAVE WITHOUT WARNING? I was so worried!”

  “Wha—Worried?” Berserkrios muttered in confusion. “But we almost your daughter?”

  Xizu’s voice softened abruptly. “But you didn’t mean to—at least I hope you didn’t. Listen, Gira, you might not have realized but a lot of people saw your fight with my dumb brothers. We saw what you did to yourself…” She paused briefly, her tone becoming gentle, almost motherly. “What you had to do to regain control…”

  Her aggressive tone had all but vanished, replaced with a soft, mellow voice. “Listen, kid, to you it might’ve been a couple of days, but to me and my family, you… You saved my husband. You sacrificed what little life you had to help those people back at Trant. While you were in that nasty coma, we took care of you. You became part of our everyday life. Sure, you nearly ate Alice—but you didn’t.” Her voice brightened. “You didn’t kill anyone that night. But you did scare the shit out of everybody.” she laughed softly. “Look, Gira, we were worried sick. Honestly, I was angrier at my dumbass brother,” she added sharply, irritation creeping back in, “who also doesn’t FUCKING PICK UP HIS CALLS!”

  “We’re sorry!” Berserkrios and Gira both responded instinctively, their voices echoing in panicked unison.

  Xizu let out a long, deep sigh. “How have you been, kid? The weirdos in the Voltasaxx squad haven’t done anything weird to you, right?”

  “Uhhhh—well, we were calling about something that kinda happened with them,” Gira replied nervously, partially taking control of Berserkrios. Letting one eye remain blue while the other dulled to a gray-black.

  “What happened? They’ve been treating you well, no?” She asked, her tone surprisingly motherly.

  “Ummm. So there was this guy called Gael right…” Gira hesitated.

  “Mhm,” she answered with a rather dark tone.

  Gira gulped, “Well…”

  Before you answer! Berserkrios urgently interrupted him internally. If I’m understanding her personality, perhaps we should avoid mentioning Morray or Serfet!

  Gira quickly adjusted. “So w—I mean—I figured out that whenever I get injured I can repair my body with Kyyr rich blood. And we’ve been doing some rough training where I get hurt quite a bit. And it was getting out of hand. And—we were training with this guy called Gael and—we spooked him. So then he tried to kill us with his Kyyr and… we ended up having a big fight also we wrecked a bunch of the fancy stuff in the manor. So, ummm—we’re scared we might get punished even though we were only defending ourselves. Oh and Gael’s still alive; I didn’t eat him!”

  “I see,” Xizu replied sharply. “This ranger—was his full name Gael Arsène?”

  “Y-yeah, he uses a weird mist ability that hurts a ton and—”

  “Morray…” Xizu hissed through the crystalcomm with murderous intent.

  “Wha? What about Morray?” Gira asked, confused.

  Xizu sighed again, her voice becoming somber. “Then again you’re also in the same boat…”

  “???”

  Xizu’s voice grew grim. “To tell you the truth, most of the members of the Voltasaxx Squad are Mahnes.”

  “Manes? Like on an animal?”

  “No, no, MAH-nays. People with no past—ghosts.” She clarified. “Rim worlds like Esthes-3 are attractive places to disappear. Listless, sleepy worlds far away from the chaos of the ORPA. All sorts of people used to come here up until before the Shattering.” Xizu’s words began to grow heavy. “Granted not everyone chooses to disappear by choice and we would occasionally end up with maniacs like Gael. If memory serves me right, Gael Arsène showed up one day and began to obsessively stalk and kill young Servinae women. Until Morray ‘reformed’ him.”

  “OH snap!”

  OH Shit!

  “No wonder he was so deranged!” Gira mumbled.

  Xizu sighed, “Listen, I’ll call my brother and tell him about your fight. Just get some rest and start calling me more often! We’ve got a lot catching up to do! You also have to apologize to Alice and Bobby!”

  “Sure, sure…but, uh, who’s Bobby?”

  “The poor ranger trainee, you almost deleted from the census,” she replied dryly.

  “Oh shoot! Yeah, I definitely need to tell him I’m sorry.”

  “Good! For now, just get some rest and lock your doors in case that psycho wakes up, okay?”

  Gira relaxed slightly, gratitude filling his voice. “Thanks so much, Xizu. And… sorry for everything,” he murmured, placing one hand gently on his forehead as he lay back, staring at the crystalcomm in his other hand.

  “Just promise you’ll call me, alright?”

  “Sure thing, umm… m-m-mom?” Gira stammered awkwardly.

  Though Gira couldn’t see it, Xizu smiled. “Take care, son. Talk to you soon,”

  Silence settled between them, each hesitating over the hang-up button. Who should end the call first? It seemed some human experiences persisted, unchanged across millions of years, from one distant world to another.

  Berserkrios cleared their throat awkwardly, quickly taking control and ending the call.

  “Why’d you do that?!” Gira protested in panic.

  “Because it was awkward as hell, and we need sleep.” Berserkrios rolled their shoulders wearily. “I'm going back to the throne now. Let’s hope we don’t get fucked by the rangers.”

  “Yeah…” Gira sighed deeply as he pulled his legs onto the bed, exhaustion and pain overtaking him. “I really hope tomorrow doesn't suck,” he mumbled quietly, letting his weary body sink into a dreamless sleep.

  Joy Pursuit is finished. At the current pace… well, it’s gonna be a hot second.