Private Caged

[Makko Vyres]

HYPERSPACE

SHIELD | ARMOR | LIGHTSABER | DRONES | SHIP | PISTOL​

Rayia Asai

"Wake up!"

Makko opened his eyes. His gaze followed the sound to the barred door. There was a heavyset gran on the other side of the bars.

"Crap," Makko muttered. He had been aware of the bounty placed on his head after Ukatis, but he hadn't expected anyone to be so bold to as to snatch him from Corscant. He hadn't even been far from the academy alongside Jonya's padawan.

Makko slowly sat upright. He had a heavy chain clamped to one ankle. From the wires wrapped through the links, he suspected it was set up to shock him.

"Yeah that's right. Don't want any trouble," the gran called out. "Gonna get you to mando space."

Makko's head was buzzing. They'd caught him with a stun blast. He could tell they were on a ship from the sounds and vibrations.

Not just him, he realised. Jonya's padawan was also in the cell.

"I wouldn't do this," Makko warned, but he knew the hollow threat fell on deaf ears. Makko shook his head, trying to wake himself up. He was yet to realise that Rayia and her Felacatian nature was actually his biggest danger.

 

[Rayia Asai]

Makko Vyres

---

What Rayia abhorred about windships (spaceships to others) wasn't the smell of sterilization that lingered through the air. It wasn't the sound of one's footsteps ringing through the deck-plates like a echo. Nor was it the impersonal, and often cold, effect of the interior. No, what Rayia, and other members of the Felacatian species, hated about windships was the sensation of an endless fall. Space travel didn't feel so much as a jaunt from origin to destination as a perpetual plummet into the void. Their tails, highly evolved organs capable of detecting and analyzing the slightest movements around them, could sense the movement of the ship and then...nothing. Though their eyes could see stars and planets just outside the viewport, it was as if they had been swallowed by a smothering blanket of nothing. Hyperspace was even worse, for even the countless stars and worlds died away in the blue haze. It was little wonder then that few Felacatians underwent space flight unless absolutely vital and only in short bursts. It simply pulled at the beast within far too strongly to ignore.

Rayia was one of few Felacatians that willingly submitted to the stress of this sensation time and again, immersing herself in it as part of paladin training (Jedi training). She had lived alongside Jonyna and Ko and Giran in one of those windships for months. The imperial scout ship that Jonyna Si had wrestled away from a tyrannical regime and repurposed into a Cathar symbol of hope had character. It had quirks and a personality that Rayia had come to know, even if she still tore up her bedroom from the stress and hid the evidence. That was perhaps the first sign that something was wrong Rayia could detect as she lay there on the cell floor. A ripple coursed up Rayia's neck as she lay unmoving on the floor of the gran's ship. The burnished bronze and white fur lining her arms bristled, straining as if to catch a non-existant wind.

'This doesn't... smell right. Is Dice... messing with the... ventilation efficiency again?' Rayia's mind groggily threaded together as she blearily opened her eyes. Two slits of gold glittered in the dim illumination of the light panels above as she tried to focus on what she could see. The blurry outline of another individual chained to the wall across from her was perhaps the most distinct. Rayia's feline eyes opened wide at that, and she tried to sit up. Panic, like a surge of lightning coursed through her spine as she realized she couldn't quite move. A numbness still lingered in her body and the crisp kiss of metal prickled her cheek. 'Stun bolt. Probably multiple if I'm still feeling it,' Rayia analyzed automatically. As more and more senses started to come awake, she realized she could taste the acrid sting of blood and feel the faint sensation of a similar shock-restraint clasped around her ankle. 'Must have lashed out when they got me," she thought and surprised herself a moment later when '...Good,' flashed through her head.

The beast within was already starting to wake with the feeling of building trapped budding inside her. A furious itch crawled over her as she felt muscles rippling beneath her skin. Taking advantage of her panic, and the thinning boundary of shifting, her bestial side had begun infusing her with its strength. 'You need to get a hold of yourself, Rayia. Breathe,' she reminded herself and exhaled softly. Fighting the panic with perhaps the oldest trick in the book, Rayia pinned her attention somewhere else. Namely, on the other squire... no, paladin in the cell with her. Dark hair, scrappy, tattooed. Piercing blue eyes. She'd seen him around some, had heard of his knighting, but never really spoken to him before. When she tried now, her lips were cracked and parched and she winced at the wheeze that issued from her mouth. "...Where are we?" She breathed.

 

[Makko Vyres]

UKATIS

Rayia Asai

"You're on a ship with me and this ugly three-eyed prick," Makko said. "Everything will be fine."

"I wouldn't listen to him," the gran at the bars said. "He's got a bounty and we know where we're sending him. You...we'll have to figure out where we can sell you. Otherwise its the air lock."

"That's not going to happen," Makko said firmly.

This was another situation where he felt out of his depth. He was supposed to be a Jedi Knight, supposed to take control. He'd managed to get Colette shot and now Jonya's padawan captured just for being near him.

"You're making a mistake," Makko warned.

"Not our first bounty kid."

"It's Raiya, isn't it?" Makko asked.

Makko was trying to remember why they had been together in the first place. He remembered a docking bay.

 

[Rayia Asai]

Makko Vyres

---

"Rayia," she corrected automatically, wincing as she felt another spike of pain lodge in her skull. "You must be Mako. I heard about your knighting." Her head was still throbbing from the stun blasts, making it hard to concentrate. And why could she smell smoke? There was no fire anywhere that she could see, but a faint, lingering scent of smoke still clung to her clothing. 'Doesn't smell the way a stun blast does, either. It's lacking that faint ozone smell. Instead, it's more like molten plasteel...,' Rayia thought to herself. Having experienced similar blackouts, Rayia knew that if she tried to force the issue she'd draw only a blank. Instead, she had to let things percolate and they would eventually pierce the mist of fog clouding her mind. She did have two sets of memory to rely on after all. Even if the beast within seemed far too agitated at the moment. Attempting to utilize its memory would only erode the barrier of restraint that Rayia had managed to erect against her rising panic. Already, she could feel it gnashing at the bit and infusing her muscles. It did not like being cooped up.

Rayia's reaction was fear as the gran might have expected, though not to his threats. No, those threats were met with a blank stare, and the slightest twitch of the ear as Rayia stared at the broad-shouldered form silhouetted in the light crawling in through the bars. Snakes will be snakes, after all. The gran's three bulbous eyes squinted at her, as they scoffed. "Oh sure, you're feeling brave now but like I said. If we can't figure out where to sell you, it's no skin off our back. So don't go causing any trouble."

Rather it was Makko's words that seemed to draw the biggest reaction from Rayia. "How long? Are we in jump?" she whispered, a touch of fear entering her voice. "How long have we been in jump?" She repeated frantically. Her golden eyes, now wide with fright, swept the room. Her tail drew protectively into its sheath at the base of her spine, leaving only the barest tuft of itself bristling with nerves and the sensations of movement throughout the ship. Rayia could feel the movements of at least 5 other individuals in the ship. At least, based on what her tail could identify. The highly sensitive organ could feel the vibrations of the pilot at the controls, the two turret gunners lounging in their chairs, and the two loading small, oblong cylindrical objects into the cargo bay. 'There could always be more,' she reminded herself. Turning to the gran, she said. "Please. I'll get very sick if we keep jumping. Can we just stop for a bit?"

She was chained to one wall of the cell, opposite Makko. The cluttered decor told her that this was in fact a storage area that could also be used as a makeshift brig in the event that one was needed. A bunkbed cot was tossed against one far wall, while shelving lockers imposed themselves upon the corner of the room. Pipes squirrelled all throughout the wall panels, ferrying necessary resources from one room of the ship to the other. Most of them were well obscured, but Rayia could catch glimpses of them from between the gaps. Necessary resources such as the electricity for their shock restraints. 'Probably why they have an armed guard watching us. To make sure we don't try anything.' she thought.

Feeling the numbness fading, Rayia pushed herself up into a sitting position with her palms. The chain connecting the shock-clasp to her ankle rattled with the motion, clinking softly as links of chains passed over each other. 'Not good. There's slack.' Rayia thought, drawing farther back. If she shifted now... Thoughts of her mauling Makko flashed through her mind before she clamped down on them. Her hands massaged the numbness from her thighs as the Felacatian drew herself into a small, tight ball. If she could only meld with the wall behind her, she would. The stinging pins and needles sensation as blood coursed through her legs caused her to gasp softly. But it gave her mind something else to focus on.

 

[Makko Vyres]

Makko saw he looking at the chains. He never would have guessed that she was mentally measuring the distance between them relative to the slack in the chain.

"We'll be in hyperspace another couple of hourse," the gran said. He grinned, enjoying verbally poking and prodding the prisoners to make guard duty bearable. "Unless we decide to airlock you on the way."

"Don't listen to him," Makko said. He was trying to reach for the Force. It was there, but the haze made it difficult. It was like trying to hold a handful of sand.

"Hey didn't know you could retract your tail," he said. In the absence of anything else to do, he tried to lighten the mood. Despite his internal panic, if he looked more relaxed he hoped it might rub off on the felacatian padawan. He had seen Jonya in battle. Makko didn't want to suffer her wrath.

 

[Rayia Asai]

Makko Vyres

---

'Not that a chain like this would do anything more than annoy it,' Rayia thought to herself with a frown. She'd seen the aftermath of her restraint on the Reaper, or on the Imperial vessel that Amani and Iris had rescued her from. The beast within was fully capable of shredding durasteel if it wanted to, and had hunted people through bulkheads before. '...The shock doubly so,' she concluded and laid down the chain with a concerned frown. In all likelyhood, if she did shift, the beast within would firstly maul Makko in its efforts to escape, then rend the bars of the cell and devour the gran and the rest of the bounty hunter's crew. This trail of morbid thoughts was fortunately, or rather unfortunately, interrupted by the gran at the bars.

Rayia was starting to like this gran less and less as he continued speaking. He seemed like the sort who enjoyed emotionally tormenting his prisoners for entertainment. Guard duty could be boring, she knew. She'd dealt with that prospect before, when she had been placed on watch duty during the night while the tribe slept. 'Probably the worst thing of all of that was the fact that I had no one else there to talk to.' Rayia thought to herself. She had been alone and the long stretches of time seemed endless. 'Never mind the anticipation of something happening when a stray shadow crossed the path or the dying fire-light made it appear as if someone was flitting through the trees,' she thought. Always waiting for something to happen, and it never happening. 'Still, I suppose he is marginally better than any captors I've had before. He hasn't struck us physically yet,' the Felacatian thought to herself.

A bolt of panic shot through her once again at the notion that they would be in hyperspace for a few more hours. No wonder she was feeling so physically ill. Her tribe did not do well with extended periods in hyperspace. It was why they required real-time stops when travelling from location to location. More importantly, it brought up an important question. How long had they been in hyperspace already? The effects of hyperspace sickness would only continue to compound as they went on, and Rayia had no way of gauging how incrementally potent they would become from here on out. Rayia's fingers clutched tight to her arms, so that her knuckles went white and faint hand-print marks slowly faded in across her biceps.

Makko's attempt to lighten the mood worked, if only slightly. Rayia gave him a small smile, easing up her hold on her arms. She thought about how to answer his implied question. She currently hadn't revealed her Felacatian nature to anyone beyond a select few with first-hand experience. She had simply posed as a Cathar which most people had assumed she was, including her own mentor, Jonyna. And Rayia had been content to let it stay that way. At least, until Ukatis... When her secret had been revealed. 'I'll still have to deal with that. Hope Jonyna Si and Ko Vuto can forgive me for hiding this from them,' Rayia thought. "It's a special trick my tribe has. Our tails are very important to us, so we evolved to be able to." She answered, then responded with a question of her own. "What did you do to get this bounty anyway?"

 

[Makko Vyres]

"Huh," went Makko.

He couldn't think of anything to say that wasn't an inappropriate joke. He wanted to try and keep some light conversation. He could feel the stress building inside Raiya. Little eddies in the flow of the Force around her gave it away.

Makko leaned forward towards Raiya. He stopped suddenly as the gran reached for something.

"Hey," Makko protested, seeing the remote in the prisoner guards hands. "Just talking."

"No sudden movements!"

"If that was sudden then...argh!"

The short, sharp shock had Makko convulse where he sat. He swore under his breath before trying to pretend that hadn't hurt quite as badly as it had.

"Defended a planet they were raiding," he said. "There was a disagreement on Ryloth and then the attack on Ukatis. Those stupid helmets clearly record things."

 

[Rayia Asai]

Makko Vyres

---

Rayia's eyes narrowed as Makko lapsed into silence. "What?" she growled. It wouldn't be the first time that someone tried to make an inappropriate joke about that particular feature of Felacatian anatomy. She'd heard it all before, and was mildly disappointed and annoyed. Thankfully, Makko had the presence of mind to remain silent. Still... 'Did he do that on purpose? Annoying me so I'd focus on him and not the ship?' Her annoyance with him had momentarily distracted her from the growing sensation of nausea that was building inside her chest. Slitted, golden eyes glared at him as he leaned forwards, but Rayia's heart wasn't really in it. She got the sensation that he was doing it out of worry for her. He seemed the type to alleviate other's problems by making himself look foolish. The same way her sisters had decided to mess with her whenever she had spent too long brooding over one particular problem. Anger could be properly cathartic if vented properly.

Rayia saw and felt that he was trying to lean forwards towards her, and tried to meet him halfway. Of course with their respective height differences, that was much more of Makko leaning towards her than anything. Her tail bristled once again, and she felt the displacement in the air as the gran reached for something. Instantly, golden eyes snapped onto him watching as the gran hefted the remote into his hand. "Hey, wait. He didn't even move that far!" Rayia said, protesting along with Makko that he hadn't attempted to escape. It seemed that the gran didn't particularly like his prisoners arguing with him as he pressed the button anyway.

Rayia's ears flattened sympathetically as she watched Makko convulse under the effects of the electricity surging through his body. Worse than that, she could feel and hear everything. Each stiffened muscle jerked through the air in erratic, short jumps that her tail could pick up. Her large, tapered feline ears could pick up on the way his heartbeat, normally steady and strong, thumped erratically. 'It definitely hurts. And it hurts severely,' Rayia thought, hearing the soft hiss of pain he tried to muffle for her sake. The cool, stinging touch of metal wrapped around her own ankle grew more acute as Rayia started to suck down heaving breaths. "Hff, Hff," she hyperventilated, feeling the beast thrashing within her. Her mouth started to itch. Rayia could feel her jaws snapping and reforming as her mouth filled with sharp fangs. More than it should have been able to hold. She bit her lip, feeling the acrid taste of blood spill over her lips as she buried her face into the fur cowl of her vest.

'So Makko was also on Ukatis? Must have been in a different area, since I never saw him,' Rayia thought, before seizing on something he had said. 'Wait if Makko was captured because the helmets recorded footage of him... Then if they don't know who I am yet, or what happened they will soon,' Rayia thought, feeling her stomach leap into her chest. "That's not good," she whispered through pursed lips, "I was also on Ukatis. They'll figure out who I am if they haven't already," she continued.

The gran seemed to perk up at that, reaching down towards his communicator. "Stop whispering to each other! Hey, did you guys find anything out on the broad yet? Are we tossing her out an airlock or what?"

 

[Makko Vyres]

"Push that button again and..."

Makko had started to say through clenched teeth, but all it earned him was another sharp shock.

His hands balled into fists, so tight that he left white little cresenct marks in his palms. He breath sharp and shallow, but the defiance never left his eyes.

Makko hated bullies. He had hated being made to join in with 'teaching lessons' to new gang recruits. There were still white marks between his fingers where they had punished him with a sharp knife between the fingers. His life experience had only reinforced that aspect of himself. Horace was dead, but Makko would never forget his sneer.

"By Darth Vader's rusty helmet when I get out of this you'll suffer."

The Gran held a finger over the button. Makko didn't look away, but he had nothing else to say.

In the moment he felt the calling of his anger. The temptation of the darkness. It would have driven the fog away and given him the power he needed to escape.

Never in his life had he felt it so clearly.

"Oh good news," the gran called out. "They've found someone who'll pay for you too. Guess who? Same people paying for him!"

"Bad news...I don't like the way he's looking at me so..."

Rayia Asai woukd get a sudden jolt through the collar. A punishment Makko had earned for her.

 

[Rayia Asai]

Makko Vyres

---

Rayia hissed softly as Makko threatened the gran about pushing the button again. While she understood the sentiment, that kind of provocation was likely to do little more than cause the gran to retaliate. 'If you give a snake leverage over you, they will undoubtedly use it. That's why they are a snake. They enjoy pushing their weight around and bullying those in vulnerable states,' she thought. That being said, they couldn't just idly sit here either. If they did that, they'd still meet with a terrible fate. 'Either at Mandalorian hands...' Rayia thought, remembering the steel-faced, visored warriors weren't exactly known for their hospitality. What with using chemical weapons on civilians, abducting and maiming senators, or the way that their captives always seemed to be malnourished when they returned them in prisoner exchanges, Rayia had no doubts of the severity that they would be met with if they were taken as prisoners. '...or my claws,' Rayia thought, wincing in pain as she watched and felt Makko convulsing again.

She could sense him succumbing to anger, having been in its throes plenty of times. In fact, there would be a moment of shocked silence as Makko invoked the name of Darth Vader as a promise of retribution. 'I'm no expert in Paladin (Jedi in Weikian) history, but I'm pretty sure invoking the name of a Warlock (Sith in Weikian) like that is a big faux-pas,' Rayia thought to herself. She tried to help Makko, as best she could while chained to the wall. "Hey, Makko. Look at me. We'll be fine," she said, hoping to draw his attention to her. It was an old trick she had learned from a dear friend. Back when she was just a simple blacksmith's apprentice hunting Warlocks alongside her friend. If the world threatened to overwhelm, focus on a singular entity or object. Make it the entire world for just a few moments. Truly study it. Return to it if you need an anchor. She could do that for him. Even chained to the wall as she was. She could be that for him.

The gran's words caused her ears to snap to attention and Rayia turned to look at him. So it seemed that they had discovered who she was. But the gran's lack of panic revealed that perhaps they hadn't captured everything on the helmet recordings during the raid. 'Not that it's surprising. What with the gas and debris?' Rayia thought. Either that or they simply hadn't gotten to the part which should frighten them yet. Either way, it meant that she and Makko were likely on a timetable now.

A cruel smile bloomed across the gran's face as he delivered that final line. Rayia braced herself, ears and tail drawing back and in respectively. She could already tell where this was going. His beady trio of eyes seemed to drink in the sight with relish as he pressed the button. Liquid fire seemed to course through Rayia's veins as she felt the collar discharge bolts of electricity into her body. "Gnn." She grunted, cutting off short as seizure of her muscles stole the breath from her lungs. Rayia's head smacked into the wall behind her, sending stars dancing through her vision as it locked straight ahead of her towards Makko. Vision that was getting blurry as hot, burning tears trailed from her cheeks. The beast was howling in her ear now, and Rayia could feel her consciousness drifting as the punishment continued unabated. 'Stop, you can't shift... you.......can't.......,' Rayia thought to herself as her mind grew ever more cloudy.

The gran turned, still thumbing the button as Rayia continued to squirm. "You see, this is what happens when you don't keep your mouth shut, boy." The gran lectured, wagging the remote towards Makko in a condescending tone.

Rayia's gaze started to move, sliding slowly towards the side until they locked on the Gran. But her eyes weren't the same golden pools of warmth that Makko had seen before. No, they were...larger? Colder. More acute. Her pained breaths came faster and faster, turning ragged and feral. Snap. Snap. Snap. The sharp noises of bones snapping and remelding echoed in the enclosed space. Rayia's clawed hands grew longer and thicker: somewhere between humanoid hand and forepaws. Shrrrrrk! Her claws dug into the metal of the deckplates, leaving huge rents behind as she drew her hands into fists.

"WHat the Kark?!" The gran cried, jumping back a few paces from the bars. "What are you?!" His hands fumbled for his belt, where a blaster was kept holstered. Rayia reacted immediately, leaping to her feet with feline agility in the space of a heartbeat. The short Felacatian weaved out of the way of the blaster shots seemingly at the last moment. With her tail able to detect the displacement of air as the blaster fire passed through, and her feline reflexes, Rayia slunk to the back of the room wrenching her chain from the wall as she went. "URRRRR!" She roared at Makko and the gran, watching both of them with wild eyes and a mouth far too filled with fangs.

 

[Makko Vyres]

"Shit."

"Shit."

Makko was in the unenviable position of being between Raiya and the door. The sound of her bones twisting and reshaping had made him feel sick, but the look in her eyes was terrifying.

"Let me out!" Makko called, but the gran was hitting the shock button. One final jolt but she had pulled the wires free before it could deliver a lethal shock.

"Rayia, Rayia, what's going on?" Makko said. He pushed himself along the ground as far from her as the chain would allow.

 

[Rayia Asai]

Makko Vyres

---

Rayia's gaze snapped between the other two individuals in the room as they each swore respectively. A low growl caught in the back of her throat slowly spilled from her lips. "...rrrr...," she growled in response to the exclamatives, sinking back onto her haunches and the palms of her hands. Her clawed fingers and toes dragged slowly through the deck plate beneath her. Savage furrows slowly started to bloom over the metal as each quiver of breath or movement caused Rayia's ears to flick and her tail to bristle. Those cruel, glinting, golden, slitted eyes would fixate on the source. A steady thrumming of a vein along her thigh in the tense silence showed Rayia's bestial side was simply preparing to pounce on whoever provoked her next.

Unfortunately for the gran, that happened to be him. The dying throes of the shock collar as he jammed his thumb on the button and held it there caused Rayia to issue a yowl of pain. Her ears flattened as she felt the prickle of energy coursing over her nerves like needles jammed directly into her skull. Rayia shook her head furiously, feeling yet more of the beast within infusing her body with strength. Her mouth had started to elongate, taking on the very first hints of a muzzle-like shape. The muscles of her shoulder blades and thighs ripped and corded beneath her skin, growing denser and denser. The first signs of her bestial form's dense and bony armor plates had also started to poke through along her right collarbone as long, dense metallic, and fluffy fur bristled from between the gaps.

The gran would feel a sharp yanking tug from behind as telekinetic energy pulled him closer to the bars. The beast within was always watching and it had learned to use the Force the moment Rayia had. Rather than a controlled pull as Rayia might have managed though, this was more a dragging motion that slammed the gran into the bars. Rayia lept as the gran moved, crossing the distance quickly and bounding over Makko as he squirmed away from her on the floor. By sinking to the floor, Makko might realize that he had actually reduced his threat profile. Unless he did something "threatening", Rayia seemed content to ignore him for the most part.

Rayia's claws flashed out, biting into and through the bars separating her from the gran. The metal bars cleaved like paper, falling to the floor with a clinking sound as the swipe continued and met flesh. A lurid, squelching sound echoed through the cell as Rayia's claws cut deep into the gran's arm. Droplets spattered the ground and scattered across the smooth hull-plates. Rayia lunged forwards towards the gran's neck, causing his beady eyestalks to bob with fright.

'No...stop, don't...,' Rayia thought foggily as she lurched within the mental mire that was the beast's mind. As far as she could see, a brilliant golden horizon bloomed. Only the faint bubbling of the amber colored liquid around her disturbed it, as flecks of darkness seemed to float up from the void beneath her.

Rayia's head twisted away from the gran, and her fangs found only air. An expression of disgust crossed her face, and she hurled the gran away from her. He hit the wall with a thud cradling his wounded arm to his chest. When he had recovered, he scurried from the room. After a pregnant pause and a few heaving breaths, Rayia turned towards Makko. A voice like Rayia's own but also not like hers spoke. It was gravelly and melodic and clearly working around the fangs and muzzle, "Let...us...go."

 

[Makko Vyres]

Rayia's gaze snapped between the other two individuals in the room as they each swore respectively. A low growl caught in the back of her throat slowly spilled from her lips. "...rrrr...," she growled in response to the exclamatives, sinking back onto her haunches and the palms of her hands.

"Oh dear..." he whispered under his breath.

Makko pushed himself against the wall. The only thing he had to defend himself with was the length of chain between him and the wall. It was barely going to slow down the crazed Rayia in this form. That maw would snap his arm as easily as it would tear out his throat.

As she leapt Makko braced. He felt the air pass over him, could smell the scent of her fur. He heard her paws hit the deck hard on the far side of him.

He sent silent praise to whatever controlled fate that she hadn't set about him first.

He didn't think he was out of hot water. Makko expected her to bound off the bars and then turn her violence back at him. Instead she cleaved through them.

, "Let...us...go."

"Rayia?" he checked. Makko pushed his back into the wall and himself up to his feet. His heart raced. Terror had done an impressive job of cutting through the haze.

"He probably has the keys," Makko muttered.

 

[Rayia Asai]

Makko Vyres

---

"Hff. Hff." Rayia sucked in ragged breaths as she loomed over the gran in front of her. Her shoulders seemed to tremble as she fought off and repressed the bestial urges clawing at her. Clawed fingers flexed, seeming to strangle the air as they curled around nothing in particular. Rayia's movements were staccato and erratic as she crouched down over the gran. The gran had, for his part, curled into a ball and was trying to stem the bleeding of his arm by clutching it tightly with the other. He whimpered as Rayia bent over him, trying to squirm away. One hand wrapped around his ankle, and dragged a bloody smear against the deckplates as Rayia pulled him back by his boots. Blood trickled through his fingers, gleaming wetly in the light of the illumination panels above them. The sight of it made Rayia's pupils shrink into the sheerest of lines, and the smell of it perfusing the air had Rayia's nostrils flaring. A slight, translucent strand of saliva rappelled down her chin until steady droplets pooled on the floor.

Makko's voice caused her head to whip around, pinning him with a sharp gaze. Rayia's ears twitched repeatedly as they stood fully upright and alert. Her tail bristled, detecting Makko's terrified breathing through the vibrations and displacement of air. The sound of her own name however had cut through the mental fog that mired Rayia's consciousness. She hadn't fully shifted yet, meaning she hadn't surrendered full control to the beast within her yet. Slowly, the sound of her name swirled down through the ball of golden amber Rayia found herself in. The partially transformed Felacatian blinked twice, ponderously closing her eyes before opening them again in curiosity.

At Makko's inference that their jailer would likely have the keys, Rayia gave him a hard glare once again. Rayia batted him this way and that as she began a rushed, brutal search of his person. It was perhaps only her feline reflexes that prevented her claws from nicking him as she casually tossed the large gran over and around. After a few moments, the slightest glint of metal poked out from the gran's lapel. Claws tore open the pockets of his jumpsuit like tissue paper, seizing around the thin, metallic cylinder tucked away there.

Rayia would then rush over to Makko within a heartbeat, pawing along on her hands and knees. A casual swipe of her claws brought another section of the durasteel bars clattering to the ground as Rayia slit yet more of them into pieces. The partially transformed Felacatian wasn't restricting herself to moving at a normal pace, and it was barely a moment before Makko would find himself face to face with her. Her free hand moved to land on his chest, slowly drawing into a fist as she clutched the front of his shirt. "Snnrrll. Time...run...now.." Snarling, Rayia jammed the key into the cuff around Makko's ankle and twisted the cylinder until the locking pins found the appropriate grooves within the cylinder and the cuff released with a pneumatic hiss.

The gran, dazed and terrified, staggered to his feet. Seeing Rayia now focusing on the other individual in the room with him, he started staggering for the hatch leading into the rest of the hallway as fast as he could limp.

 

[Makko Vyres]

He watched as the terrified gran was tossed around. Makko knew that he should have made more of a protest. He couldn't see if Rayia was searching for a code cylinder or mauling.

Makko closed his eyes and tried to immerse himself in the Force. It was like trying to plunge himself into a lake, but the surface had frozen solid. Again and again he came up, steeled himself and plunged back down.

Eventually he managed to dive down. It had been an exhausting effort for something that had become completely natural. The flow of the Force moved around them. Rayia was her own tempest, the two sides of her battling for control. There were more lives that altered the flow of the Force. The other professional bounty hunters.

He opened his eyes and braced as Rayia rushed over to him. He felt the weight of the shackle falling away.

"Snnrrll. Time...run...now.."

She was strong enough to lift much of his weight from the ground to force him to make eye contact.

"You're still there aren't you?" he observed as the code cylinder was used. Makko pushed his back into the wall and tentatively stepped away. He still had his sense of balance.

Makko felt a ripple through the Force. Each of those bright lights that was one of the bounty hunters changed one by one as word spread.

Makko looked up to see the gran at an intercom, begging for the door to be opened. Makko reached out through the Force, seeking technology. The ship shuddered, the thrum of the engineers came to a sudden halt. They were out of hyperspace. Makko had picked a simple component near the nav comp, overloaded it and the ship had reverted to realspace as a safety measure.

"They're trapped here with us now."

 

[Rayia Asai]

Makko Vyres

---

Still battling for control, Rayia couldn't spare the energy to react to Makko flinching away from her. Though it certainly stung to see his eyes grow white and to feel the quiver of movement as her tail picked up on it. It threw her back to a dust-filled maelstrom of chaos as blaster bolts singed through the air, hissing off into flickering sparks as they struck the ruined buildings of the once proud Ukatian people. A burning sensation filled Rayia's lungs, as acidic bile rose in her throat. She could still feel the clawing, cloying sensation of the gas slowly attacking her lungs. It made her perhaps a tad more hasty with her movements as she meant to. She released Makko as soon as she had lifted him to his feet and withdrew her hands to herself, folding them around her shoulders. The sensation of touch helped reassured her, and waned the beastial instinct to maul those that triggered her predatory nature. 'Good...thing too. Shouldn't shift...any more. Not with Makko here,' Rayia thought, slowly parsing through the fog that filled her mind. Makko's question went unanswered, but the harsh gleam that had once filled Rayia's eyes was slowly abating.

The terrified gran managed at last to hobble out of the hatch, sealing the door behind him. It closed with a pneumatic thunk, and Rayia could both feel and hear the gran moving to destroy the electronic latch on the other side. The tinking sound and vibrations of smashed metal splinters danced across the floor, causing Rayia's ears to stand on end and her tail to bristle.

As the ship shuddered to a halt, the lurching sensation of falling through the void endlessly ceased and Rayia visibly relaxed. Rippling fur slowly began to settle, until it had turned soft and fluffy once again. Rayia's shoulders slumped, and she breathed heavily as the cool touch of perspiration continued to tickle her cheeks. She listened to Makko's claim that the bounty hunters were trapped with them now. Slowly, she began to shake her head, "Not...important. Must leave... before they fix windship." She managed, sounding slightly less gravelly and more eloquent than before. And were those fangs that seemed to fill her mouth now shrinking?