Her knuckles were bone white from gripping the wheel so hard. A thunderous explosion resounded outside the window of the cockpit as she swerved by the now dissentegrating asteroid. She screamed in her head, but her body was too tense to even move her lips. The fighter wizzed along at their tail, shadowing every move they made; playing cat and mouse with them. She ground her teeth at that thought, she didn’t like anyone toying with her, especially someone who intended to kill her and the rest of the crew. ‘Calm down Jess, the more agitated you get, the worse your flying gets’ Bo’s voice echoed in her head. She still hadn’t quite gotten used to that, but she tried to calm down, just as another explosion sent them tumbling through the black. Her anger flared again and she punched the accelerator and blasted through two large rocks that were colliding. They scraped through them, but were still sailing, and at the right speed. ‘SEE! Gorramit! You need flying lessons!’ Bo screamed in her head. She shook her head, trying to knock him out of it so she could concentrate. The fighter was gaining and it looked like it was done playing. Jessica yanked up on the wheel and felt her body get jammed against the chair. The fighter followed their maneuver but made a fatal error. An explosion from behind them made the VALOR lurch forward as flames licked at the back hatches. She heard Smith cuss from the engine room and heard an odd hissing sound that repeated a number of times, changing pitch each time. She relaxed the grip on the wheel as Bo’s boots thudded down the ladder from the gun mount. She rolled her eyes, knowing exactly what was coming. “And you used to tell me you could fly. Bah!” Bo said, the sarcasm biting. “I could fly the Voodoo. It’s controls were easier to operate-” She started to argue. “Because it was a sitting duck. The only reason we ever got anywhere with that thing was because it was loaded down with weaponry and straight-away engines. Kaylee’d have laughed at it.” “Because I SO care what the mechanic on Captain Reynolds ship would say about my ship! Bo! You aren’t with them any more! And you won’t be if you intend to go through with this suicide mission!” She shouted as she turned to face him. Bo got silent, but she knew what she had done. She had opened a wound she had no right even bringing up. Her anger at him flared, but dulled as she the cold realization washed over her. His eyes hardened and he turned and left the bridge. Her heart sank. She turned back to the console and gripped the wheel lightly. They floated through space, two of them not wanting to be headed where they were going. Monte heard Tyler protest the same, but was silenced quickly as she heard a growl from the hyena. That animal had come to match Bo’s personality of late. He was always tense, on edge; and the hyena seemed to mirror his mood. The thing nipped at both Jessica and Tyler whenever they came too close, or whenever it really felt like it. Bo had lashed out a few times, insulting them on a hasty comment or unthoughtout idea. His world seemed to be so tangled now, that they didn’t seem to have any place in it. Stars and asteroids danced whimsically outside her window as she wondered at Bo’s strange, new depth. As she did this, a light on her console began flashing. She averted her attention to it, hoping to whoever that it didn’t mean what she thought it did. She cursed as she realized what she already knew. “GO SE!-” she said as she reached for the mic, “Bo we’ got incom-” Her transmission was cut as the EMP ripped through the ships systems. Lights went out and so did the engine. Life-support was most definitely gone, as was the artificial gravity. Then she felt the heavier pulse rip through the ship. It hit her like a wall, causing her heart to stop. Her world went blacker than the night outside as she floated into the air. X----------------------------------------------------------------------------X She brushed his face with her fingers. She read his thoughts and knew what he had done, and yet felt even closer to him. He had called out to her for comfort in his unconscious state and she would provide it. Her dark hair formed a shrowd around their faces as she leaned and kissed him. His lips tasted of blood and anger. She pulled away and a tear fell from her eye to his face, causing him to flinch. “Wake up bao-bei. You have to save your friends,” she whispered as she kissed him again. She felt his pain in his lips as he awoke. X-----------------------------------------------------------------------------X

Bo groaned as he sat up. His head had dried blood on it and his legs felt weak. He stood shakily and heard Whiskey whimper beside him. He turned his blurred vision on his pet and saw the hyena was bleeding from his mouth. Bo reached over and petted the coarse fur, telling the animal gently that it would be ok. Whiskey panted in what could have been agreement or disbelief, but pain was what clouded the animal’s mind. Bo sat there with him for a minute before he found the problem. Whiskey’s jaw had been broken, how he didn’t know. Blood was running from the wound inside the mouth. “Alright boy, this is going to hurt like the fires, but I gotta do it.” He whispered. He reached into the animal’s mind and clouded the thoughts, hoping to dull the pain somehow. As he realigned the jaw, hearing Whiskey whimper and whine in the process, he felt something that made his skin crawl. Someone was watching him. From where, he didn’t know, but he could feel it. He laid the wild-dog’s head on the grating and impressed on him how important it was not to move, and Whiskey seemed to understand. Bo stood and grabbed one of his pistols from it’s holster as he moved to the hallway before the bridge. He felt around with his mind, but found that only he and Whiskey were on board. The hatch to his left hissed open, and he could hear noise from the other side. He drew the second pistol just as the entry man dropped through the hatch. The man’s boots landed on the floor and then the rest of his body did, one .357 magnum round heavier. “Gotta hate being the lowest ranking.” Bo muttered as he moved to the hatch. As he did, a grenade dropped in, nearly hitting him in the head. Bo caught the grenade as got inches from the floor and tossed it right back out of the hatch, diving away as he did. The explosion rocked the hallway, he heard Whiskey whimper again as he stood up. He holstered his guns and pressed his mind outward, feeling no presence now. He climbed up and looked around. The beast within him growled as it saw the place. Part of it’s life had been in this place, and now it was back here. It nearly begged him to go back in the ship, to leave this place of pain and suffering behind and never look back. ‘Why are you so afraid of this place?’ Bo asked the wolf, worrying for his own safety. ‘It is not fear I feel. Rage and pain. It is the only place they can cause us TRUE pain. Where they can make us die, suffering.’ It snarled. ‘We can die other places, a clear shot to the skull would kill us. Even though I now know it has to be a direct shot, not from under the chin.’ ‘Yes, but this place is HIS.’ And, like that, Bo instantly knew. He felt it all around him. The pain and suffering that had given the man so much pleasure. Animal’s blood mingled with human scent, and he could hear screams in the distant catacombs of the huge ship. It was a modified space-liner, meant for carrying armies, or doing scientific research on the move. The latter would have been the purpose of this particular ship. Things happened quickly, almost too quickly, but Bo had felt them coming. The arms of the grapplers swung down and clasped at where his arms had been. His body soared through the air as it started to transform fluidly. He stopped in mid transformation, his teeth lengthened and his hands now furred claws. This was all he needed, for now. His canines showed slightly on his bottom lip as his eyes mixed in an odd combination of flecks of yellow with blue. The grappling cables shot out at him, closing again around crisp air that had been occupied nanoseconds before. This time, he had dropped to the floor, and reached up and ripped the cables from their mounts. He dropped them to the floor and let his eyes truly scan the room. There was a door at the far end, and between him and it there were three robotic sentries that lay dormant. Bo cursed the first thing he could think of and moved silently toward the door. The beast within him seemed to have regained its rage and bloodlust, but it relinquished control to him. ‘Without this man I would not have been given life. But I have no love for him. You will deal with him.’ And like that the beast was gone, vanished from its place, as if it had never been there. Bo looked at his hands. The fur was there, as were the claws. He ran his tongue across his teeth and knew that it wasn’t gone, just hidden. The first sentry stood. It swung around, aiming its laser’s directly on him. Bullets flew from the gun, ripping through air as Bo leapt over them. His body met the metal and took it crashing to the floor. The other two sentries sprung to life, swinging around and aiming down where Bo was tearing at the body of the third. The unleashed bullets, and continued to fire as they ripped into the metal casing of the third sentry. Bo ripped the base of the second sentry from the ground and used the entire robot to smash the other. They met with an explosion that knocked him to the ground. Regaining his feet, Bo moved to the door and ripped it from its hinges. Behind him there was the sound of a chaingun running as bullets entered his back. Pain erupted then subsided as he turned to face the final sentry. It was as big as two of the others combined. "Hwoon Dan." Bo sighed as shook his head. He flung the door at the sentry, which caught it and crushed it in one hand. Bo leapt at it, getting caught in mid air and flung back into the hall. Groaning as he stood, he watched the machine lunge at him, trying to crush him between it and the wall. Bo jumped sideways, narrowly avoiding the crushing blow. He reached into the robots arm and tore out a hose. The hose sprayed black liquid all over the floor, oil. The arm dropped, lifeless at the machine's side. Then it dropped off completely, the robot dispatching of the useless weight. Bo grabbed the arm and brought it around to slam it into the sentry's head, but the machine caught the arm and tore it from his hands. Bo took the distraction and jumped at the machines mid section and tore into a large hose at the back. Oil spilled over his hands as the robot fell foward over the top of him. Bo stood up, lifting the dead weight off of him, when he heard the rolling. The scanner at the top of the head had rolled out and was blinking. "No" he said in disbelief. The sentry's eye exploded, sending him crashing into a solid steel wall near the door. Growling in pain, he stood and listened to his bones crack back into place and felt tears and burns heal on the spot. "Damn robots, never just lay down and die like a normal person." He grumbled as he kicked a large chunk of metal. Stepping into the hallway, he let loose a fearsome howl that seemed to rattle the ceiling. He felt fear from below, and amusement from above him. His mind tore into two sides. ‘Kill Aries. We’ll find the rest later.’ ‘You know Aries, he’s got something up his sleeve. He expects you to take the beast’s idea.’ ‘Because it is the best plan of action.’ ‘Wrong. You could never convince yourself of that.’ He growled as he made his way to the descending stairs. Confusion masked the amusement for a brief moment before it was replaced by near disbelief. His bare, clawed feet made little sound on the grated stairs as he came to the lower level. “Well, it was surprising to see you chose the human thing to do. Means that he allowed you to maintain control. Interesting. Too bad though. Cause I was hoping to get to see you before I left.” Said a gruff voice over the loudspeaker. “Left?! Aries you coward! Stay and fight me!” Aries spoke, but in an odd tone. He said a line from an ancient poem, that Bo had only heard of, never heard. “In vain he attempted to speak; from that very instant His jaws were bespluttered with foam, and only he thirsted For blood, as he raged among flocks and panted for slaughter. His vesture was changed into hair, his limbs became crooked; A wolf-he retains yet large trace of his ancient expression, Hoary he is afore, his countenance rabid, His eyes glitter savagely still, the picture of fury” Bo felt the rage build in him again, felt fur dance along his body. ‘You said he was mine to kill!’ The beast only snarled in response. “You made me this monster, you bastard!” Bo managed to scream as his face lengthened and he felt the beast take the body. “Wrong, boy! I made you a masterpiece, more than Skoal could ever do. I made you the perfect killer. The one that wouldn’t die. I made you almost as perfect as Her. Without the Academy breathing down my neck I almost perfected the process, until I found something out. Your bloodline was special. That was why the procedure took. That was why you would have made the perfect mate for Her. But Skoal had to go soft and give you the humane thoughts. But we’ll end that here and now.” As he reached the final stair, an ear splitting screech ruptured his brain. He felt the blood boil in his ears as he howled. “You see, you are not nearly as invincible as they want you to believe. Now, you can get up and leave with your crew, or you can die, from bloodloss from your ears. What’s it going to be?” The noise stopped and Bo instantly felt his conscious rise to the surface. He snarled as he turned and bound back up the stairs. The sound started again, and his ears bled, but he pressed on until he reached the top floor. Blood poored out of his ears as his feet pounded on the grating. He fell to the floor and looked down the hallway. He could just see the door that led to the control room. He howled with pain as his body rose, and he moved slowly to the door. The noise stopped as he opened the control room door.

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(So, theres a short installment, and if it seems rushed, it kind of was, but I think it was good anyway. Hang on for more, cause there's some good stuff coming up.