She ran until her chest heaved, until her jaws ached, until she couldn't hear the screams and the sounds of teeth clattering. She considered herself cowardice for only a moment, before she reconciled with her conscience that she was doing her kingdom justice by returning with at least one orphan rather than none.  She spat the child out and glared, bringing herself close to the height of the girl, "You have nowhere to fucking run, and if you try I will catch you and devour you limb-by-limb." She spat, using a forceful paw to shove Angel forward as she trotted forward, adjacent in distance.

Farai felt good, felt as though she outsmarted her opponents. But her grim smile would soon contort to a look of black as she turned to see a puny red bitch and her fucking steed follow.

Still in somewhat disbelief that she'd ran and caught up to the child thief, Sybella found herself at a loss of words. She had nothing witty or heroic to say like her leader,  ".... Just... give us the child... and no one gets hurt." She hoped Iron would agree to hurt this pitiful soul if she did not abide by her demands.

"Fuck OFF." Farai scoffed, stepping on Angel's tail as she diverted her attention to the new annoyances.

Sybella looked to Iron hopefully, assuming he would take the lead here now that she initiated a standoff. Breaking her gaze, she looked back towards Angel and smiled, "It's okay, honey, we're here to save you!"

This was going all wrong. Her parents had come to rescue her, but she was being carried away, what if they didn't find her, what if they thought she was dead, what if - no, no, she had to stay calm. The other children would tell them where she had been taken, right? They would find her quickly, they would strike down this demon that held her, and she would be reunited with her family once again.

She struggled to hold onto this confidence as she was dropped on the ground and threatened, tiny ears laying back flat against her head in impotent rage. There had to be some way to get out of this, some way to trick Farai or...anything...her face screwed up in frustration as she hurried along in front of her shepherd, trying her hardest to will ideas to come to her.

Iron let Sybella take the lead with the negotiations at first, grateful for any chance to not have to speak. He stared at the little white pup, who seemed to be relatively unharmed, and then the dark female that faced them. Apparently she wasn't feeling very diplomatic. The tiny pup yelped as her tail was stomped on, and Iron bared his teeth reflexively, taking a step toward the villain, angling himself slightly to stand in front of Sybella at the same time. "Let the kid go," he growled, head lowered like a lion stalking its prey. "This is your only warning."

These strangers may not have been her parents, but they were here to help, and she needed any help she could get right now. She wanted to say something, but she felt overwhelmed. To her horror, her eyes began to well up with tears and she barely held back a sniffle. She was afraid. But at least she was no longer alone.

Sybella watched attentively as Iron asserted himself, reiterating to the slimy kidnapper that she had no other choice than to release Angel.  Instinctively she stepped back as he brought himself before her, but she remained alert incase she was forced to grab the child while Iron held Farai against her will. She began to wonder whether they should somehow imprison her, as they did the pups, to return her to Gemini. These guys were professionals. They've done this before, and it was likely there was more of them.  Farai would be excellent intel.

It was disturbing to Sybella to see that the slaver just wasn't budging. Farai held her ground as her hair stood, and she reflected her own drool-ridden snarl. It was then that a cry was heard from the original war-ground, and it made Farai perk up. She was pleased to hear the sound, as she believed these loyal comrades would return to their post and help those who were truly in need.

"You better mind your business back there," She spat at Iron's feet, turning her back to grab Angel aggressively in her jaws again, trusting that they'd retreat.

He wasn't sure what the point of the kidnapper's resistance was; she was obviously outmatched, but she seemed to be unstable, which just made the situation more complicated. How could he make sure the child wouldn't be injured? There would be no point to any of this if she was hurt.

His ears flicked back as sounds rose from the battlefield, and he hesitated for a moment, unsure what to do. He glanced at Sybella, looking for guidance, but that was a mistake - in the moment he looked away, the slaver snapped at the child, who shrieked in some mix of fear and anger. The sound cut down to his core and he froze, standing stiffly and staring off into the distance, eyes seeming to glaze over and then come back into focus, back and forth, for what felt like an eternity.

Angel cried out again, frustrated, losing hope in her rescuers as they simple stood there while she was being taken again. She just wanted to go home. She just wanted to be back with her parents. Why was every force in the universe actively preventing her from reaching that goal? Tears fell freely now, running down her fur and onto Farai's, mixing with the monster's drool. This wasn't the hero's death she had imagined for herself. She was going to be slaughtered alone by one crazed wolf, and no one would ever find her.

Iron moved. Or rather, his body moved. It carried him toward his enemy with an eerie calm that belied his swiftness. She was turned away from him, which was fine - he did not need to see her face. He swept one giant paw underneath her hind legs, aiming to knock her off balance. Regardless of whether or not he managed this, he'd lunge forward, chest first, the way his body had always done things, slamming into Farai with all his might. Even if she didn't stop, his mouth opened and teeth flashed, latching onto any surface they could find. He bit down anywhere he could reach - her shoulder, the back of her neck, her ears, her face. He could taste blood, but the only thing he noticed about it was that it tasted exactly like any prey he'd ever eaten.

He couldn't see Angel anymore but he knew she was there, in danger, and that was enough. He did not see her scurry away from the fray and toward Sybella. He did not see the look of horror that she gave toward Farai, and he did not see that the same look was directed toward him. He didn't see anything, really. He didn't even see the creature he was battering. "Creature" seemed like the wrong word. This thing wasn't alive. Not anymore.

Sybella was relieved when Iron began his approach, after he seemed to hesitate for an inappropriately long while. Farai had gotten a small distance away when he began calmly walking towards her, and he admired him for that. How did he always remain so leveled? So at peace?  She was glad to be away from the bloodshed and chaos that was behind them, but her admiration was lost on her when she witnessed Iron unexpectedly attack Farai from behind. Confused, at first, she called. "Iron, enough.." Stern, loud enough to be heard over the snarls and the piercing whimpers. It seemed unnecessary, he was large enough to simply pin Farai down, retrieve the child, maybe give a threatening jab.

He didn't hear her.

Her face became hollow, her mouth open to scream at him, to let him know it was okay to stop, that Angel had been at her feet the moment he collided into her caretaker. THE CHILD IS SAFE, LET'S GO HOME. But nothing came out. Her vocal chords felt as though Iron ripped them out himself, just as he looked to be doing to Farai.

She stepped over Angel, shielding her from the gore. Wishing she could block out the noises, the fucking smell. Then she heard Farai scream in agony, literally begging for Iron - this beast being driven on autopilot - to give her mercy, to spare her life.

Something had a hold on him now, something he had met many times but never felt himself. The real Iron would have been disappointed to know that he didn't fight back, that he really didn't care at all. The real Iron wasn't here anymore, the real Iron was protecting the child, the real Iron could not lose another one. The real Iron had failed Tauro, who had trusted him. He wasn't going to be given a chance to fail again.

The beast, a shadow of pain and shame given physical form, had managed to subdue the slaver. It didn't matter. She was on the ground, helpless, but the job was not done, the child was not safe while she existed, and no one else was here to do anything about it. He only saw flashes of her face as he stood over her, holding her down with his forepaws and ripping into her flesh over and over. Blood spattered his face and chest, and none of it was his. He could feel the weight of it as it matted his fur, dragging him down to the ground, closer to his victim.
This wasn't punishment. This wasn't justice. The real Iron might have been interested in those things, or at least pretended to be, but the beast was not. This was destruction, obliteration. There had been a face once; Iron bit down on it, scratching out an eye. He latched onto an ear because it was sticking out, because it was there and wrenched it off, spitting it onto the ground like spare fur from a fresh deer. Iron closed his jaws around the battered one's neck, biting down with all the force he could muster. He felt flesh leak out from between his teeth; he shook his head back and forth, tearing, destroying. He needed to stop the screaming. He wasn't sure where it was coming from. He needed to save the child. He pulled his head back, bringing a chunk of fur and ligaments with him. He swallowed without thinking. There was no thinking. There was blood in his eyes, in his nose, in his mouth.

The creature had stopped fighting back long ago. "Creature" was the wrong word. It was just meat now. There was no face anymore. Iron stopped. He coughed, drops of blood and bits of gristle spraying from his jaws onto the corpse. He sniffed the air. One ear turned. His head followed. Slowly, he looked at the two figures who were watching him. He stared, eyes wide and blank, body quivering as he panted from exhaustion. He took a step toward them.

Her world unraveled. Her safety, her devotion, her worship, her savior, her world collapsed. It fell in the hands of the monstrosity that was taking place, the slaughter of the slaver was also the carnage of her core. Sybella melted into Angel, curling around the girl to avoid the sight, pressing her paws against her ears in hopes of deafening the sounds but it was useless. Even after the cries Farai had dealt were silenced, the noise of teeth-ripping-flesh were deemed worst of all. She felt herself getting sick, which led her to consider the feelings of the traumatized orphan she succumbed to. “Go, RUN, to the others,” She whispered, shoving Angel forward gently, then with more force. She didn’t deserve to see this.

Refusing to watch as he finished her off, Sybella shook with her chin tucked, staring at the ground below her. Trying to replace this Iron with the one she knew and loved. The one she plucked the quills from, the one she caught lightning bugs with, the one who saved her from a doomed death by meteorite, the one who she entangled herself with each night, never close enough. But she couldn’t hear his sweet confessions, she couldn’t see his gentle face, it was all replaced. She was losing her grip, like she knew she would.

When the devouring ceased, she quickly straightened, eager to find him again. She looked willingly into the eyes of the aggressor, unafraid in this moment. Trying to find him in those dark and lost eyes… but she couldn’t. She felt heavier than ever, unable to hold herself any more, she let her head hang while her legs struggled to keep her standing. If it weren’t for the adrenaline she’d need if he came for her next, she would have bent.

What was once gravity that relentlessly pulled her closer, closer to Iron was now exchanged for a force field that wedged the distance between them. The gap wasn’t wide enough, pushing the Earth below her to slide further. Confliction arose, where her heart once sang his name her cognition was unable to separate the monster from his true self. Sybella could not remember the warmth his closeness provided, the safety his presence had. Forgotten was the night she confessed and promised her commitment to him. This was not who she committed to. This was something else, something unlovable.

“Stay. Away. From me.” She begged through her teeth, her eyes were relinquishing tears that she had held. Come closer, her heart pleaded. “Stay. The HELL. AWAY.” She flinched as he stepped closer; reverting her attention and sewing her eyes shut. She prepared for the worst.

Angel was frozen in place, peeking out at the destruction from between Sybella's paws. She had wanted her kidnappers to suffer, but this was not the avatar of vengeance she had pictured. She had wanted her father to chase them off with their tails between their legs and tell them never to come back. She wondered if these two were really her saviors or if this was their plan for her too; she looked up at Sybella in fear and struggled to get away from her grasp. She wasn't going to leave one bad situation for an even worse one. Blocking out the sounds of Iron's rampage and Sybella's pleas, she ran into the forest, back toward the original evil, praying that this nightmare would be over soon.

Iron shook his head, one ear twitching back and forth, short circuiting. He licked his lips, noticing the taste of blood for the first time. A wave of confusion passed over him now. He looked at Sybella, finally seeing her. She looked terrified and his gaze quickly became concerned, passing over her to see if she was hurt. "Where's the kid?" he asked, craning his head around to look past her. They hadn't lost the pup after all this, had they?

“Stay. Away. From me.”

He stopped, tilting his head quizzically. He noticed his breathing now. Heavy. Why was he so tired? He looked down at his paws, which were spattered with blood. Frowning slightly, he looked behind himself, at the barely recognizable corpse. Odd. He knew he'd done that. The details, though, were hazy. He imagined it must have been a dramatic fight, given the way Sybella was reacting. If only he'd known how one-sided it had been, how it had not been a fight but a slaughter. Perhaps he would have understood her horror then, but now he thought she must be in shock.
He took a few more steps forward, reaching out to tap her face gently with his (normally not blood-soaked) nose, as he always did. "It's okay," he said reassuringly, "it's over now." He did not know that he was the "it" in this case. But he did not like to see Sybella cry. "Come on, let's see if the others need help." He walked slightly past her and looked back expectantly, hoping she would walk next to him as she always did, and his presence would dry her tears. She loved children, right? This was the perfect opportunity for her to live her dream

She didn't move from her pose, acting as stone as he stepped closer, ready to be torn to shreds. Not only could she feel her heart beat in her throat, but she could hear it pounding against her chest. Thumpthump, "Where's the kid?" thumpthump. She opened one eye to stare at him, like a child peeking at something they'd rather not see. As he came closer, her expression became more disgusted than frightened, pulling away. "STOP," She swiveled around him, putting herself between him and his prey now, playing the defensive once more. She was scared and untrusting. Sybella found herself at a total loss, again. Where was she supposed to go when the one she wanted to run to was the one she was running from?

It's okay, he said, it's over now. She felt her stomach twist and knot, and her blood boiled. Why was he acting like this wasn't a big deal? Like he hadn't single handedly massacred someone? She shook her head as he offered to return to the clearing, "I'm not going anywhere with you." She glowered, looking past Iron, holding onto her tears, not wanting to show this predator any sort of weakness to prey upon. If only Iron knew, and understood, that her dream was quickly becoming a living nightmare.

She pulled away from him and he frowned, taken aback. Perhaps she didn't like that he was covered in blood. He didn't think there was anywhere nearby for him to clean himself off, but he supposed he could see how his appearance would be offensive. Maybe she just couldn't stomach violence? "What's wrong?" he asked finally, deciding it was safer not to try to guess.

"I'm not going anywhere with you."

He stared. What was going on? Had she not wanted him to fight? Should he have just let the child die? He felt a sting somewhere in his soul, if he had one, a feeling of frustration at the fact that he was not appreciated no matter what he did. He had let a child die to a monster a long time ago. This time, he had saved a child from a monster.

He may not have been able to remember much of the fight, but it was obvious that he had won, and that was what mattered. The child was (presumably) safe somewhere, what was there to be upset about? Iron was beginning to feel very tired now, very...heavy. His legs shook slightly below him but he remained standing stubbornly. He was having a hard enough time, why did Sybella have to make it harder? "I had to fight her, I had to save the kid," he said, a note of pleading in his voice. "She's not going to hurt anyone anymore."

Frustration began to replace her fear, realizing that his blind rage may be at bay now. He justified that he had to do what he did, that he had to protect the child, that Farai was no longer going to hurt anyone. "It's not her that I'm worried about." She threw her dagger accordingly, staring hard at Iron - no - at this counterfeit version of the Iron she previously knew. "The child was safe the moment you mowed the slaver over, the rest of your agenda was clearly to satisfy your bloodthirst." She looked towards Farai, what was left of her. It was hard to stare, but she felt the longer she gave the slab of meat her attention, the sooner Iron would realize what he'd done.

Tears welled again, why did she always have to cry? "What... did you do..." She widened the stretch between them again, avoiding his gaze. "Please, don't come any closer to me." It was beginning to dawn on her how little she knew Iron, how quickly she devoted herself to him disregarding his mystery. Before this, the unknown was what made him so treasurable. Before this, she never wanted the mystery to end. The realization that his clandestine ways is what would come to tear them apart is what hurt the most.

It wasn't her that Sybella was worried about? Iron was beginning to piece this together, bit by bit, though he certainly didn't like the image that was forming. "Bloodthirst..." he repeated, eyes narrowing slightly. "What, you think I did this for fun?" he asked, a slight edge to his voice. He didn't try to move closer to her now. He wasn't sure he wanted to anymore.

And yet...there was a nagging feeling. A dawning realization that though he was covered in blood, he didn't seem to have any injuries. He glanced at the body behind him again and his ears flattened. What did you do? Sybella asked him the same question he asked himself. "I don't remember...," he mumbled, partly to himself. That was a concern for another time, though. There were still more pressing matters, like the endangered children.

"Please, don't come any closer to me."

"Sybella..." he nearly whined. "What did I do wrong?" he asked, and he was not asking only for future reference but to fill the black hole in his brain that he was only now surfacing from. "Please, tell me... Let me fix this."

Through the myriad of emotions that she was trying to make sense of, Sybella could recognize that Iron (it didn’t feel right to call him that) truly was uncertain of what he’d done. As though it was an uncontrollable rage that had taken over his body, his mind, his entire being. How was that even possible? If this was true, she was even more disturbed than before. How could that be accomplished by someone who wasn’t governing their own body?

She felt sick again, the smell completely nauseating to her. “Look at her, Iron! That-“ she raised her paw to point, “That! is what you did. Without hesitation. Without a pause. As she pleaded with you to stop, until her very last breath. In front of the child.” Sybella couldn’t believe she was defending the worthless life of a child slaver, but it was hard to justify that anyone deserved to go at the hands of a barbaric demon.

Relieved that he did not push his boundaries, Sybella exhaled, trying to make sense of what happened, and decide what to do about it next. “I think I should go back, alone…” She said slowly, “I don’t know what you’re going to tell the others, but I don’t want to be a part of it. I don’t want to have to explain what I saw, to anyone.” Right now, there was very little she wanted to be apart of if it had to do with him. Slowly she stepped backwards, waiting for Iron to negotiate, to oblige, or maybe waiting for him to lunge at her neck.

He looked. He looked at the mangled body and felt only confusion. He must have had a reason to fight so violently, right? Sybella said differently. "I don't..." he hesitated, taking a step backward, toward the body. Toward his handiwork. "This doesn't make sense," he said finally, suddenly resolute. They must have missed something. Maybe she hadn't seen what had happened properly, since she'd been panicking.

The blood coating his body said differently. He stood still, lost in thought, grappling with this situation. He had come here to save a child. The slaver had refused to give up the child. He'd stopped the slaver. The details were fuzzy, and his head was swimming now.

“I think I should go back, alone…"

The statement felt like a knife in his heart. How could she abandon him now, when he was so lost? He needed her to help him make sense of all this - that was what she was good at, what had made her the missing piece in his life for so long. He should have known not to rely on her - she wasn't the first person who had left him. It had started with his mother and continued on with everyone he'd ever known; they all entertained him long enough to realize they didn't like him, and then they turned their backs, just as Sybella was doing now. She didn't know what he was going to tell the others? The truth, of course. Lying hadn't occurred to him, though he was now beginning to suspect he should withhold some details. "I understand..." he said finally, even though it hurt to watch her go. It hurt even worse when he thought of what he was going home to - an empty den, again, and a crushing sense of failure. It would be just like old times.