“I can see two lifeforms down there,” Cirrus remarked to the group, his amber eye pulsing inside his skull as he tried his best to hold back the burning tears. But he retained his composure and looked towards the man who had proclaimed himself leader, and who he felt was already doing much better than he would've been. Feather seemed more attentive than him as they looked down towards a hole in the ground, similar metal bars stuck in the dirt wall to act as ladders, familiar black ink coating the metal as it stretched downwards into darkness. And it really did feel like Feather saw more than him, regardless of Cirrus' all-seeing eye, which he wasn't really sure how to feel about. Though it wasn't like he'd fully mastered the concept in the first place…

  “Hm. Leo, you stay up here with Kylan,” came the short command as Feather traced some of the black blood with his finger, face looking entirely blank as he watched it drip. Though the boy looked about ready to object to being left behind, when Feather turned to him with a cold stare, and he clamped his mouth shut. “You’d only get in the way. You’re a child, so I don’t want your blood on my hands.”

  “But I…! Oh…” came the disappointed reply, Kylan shuffling nervously in his spot next to Feather as the blond’s face finally softened in his direction.

  Feather lifted a gentle hand onto the boy’s hair, ruffling it with a light touch as he put a relaxed smile back on his face. “And besides, once you’re older and stronger, you’ll be able to do dangerous stuff like this, too. You just need to make sure you live to get to that point. You’re not there yet, which is why you need to live more than the rest of us. Though it’s not like I’ll be letting anyone die on my watch, so you shouldn't worry about that, either,” Feather's eyes gleamed, Kylan giving him an awe-filled stare as the man grinned. “Okay?”

  “Ah... okay! I trust you!” the boy responded, squinting into Feather’s touch before the tall man retracted.

  “Leo, keep me updated on what’s going on up here. I expect you to work as our communications between the serpent as well, so make sure you’re constantly relaying info, got it?”

  “You got it, boss! Leave it to me!” the ginger saluted, Feather smiling at him before he looked down the hole one last time.

  When they'd been in a situation similar to this before, Cirrus had somehow gotten infected, and he still didn’t know how that had happened. They needed to be careful in this environment, and he needed to be vigilant while constantly paying attention to everyone’s health and breathing so that if they did get infected, he could heal and purify them as quickly as possible. All of that was in his mind as he smiled down at the hole, before jumping inside without another thought, ignoring the ladders completely. “Alright, team! Let’s go explore! We’re gonna find some awesome loot, just you wait!”

  “What is wrong with you?” Jayce snapped, but regardless of the venom in his voice, he followed quickly after with Cirrus, Kya, Achitha, and Eve not far behind.

  And it was like Feather’s careless immaturity switch had been flipped back on, because while he’d tamed himself by a long margin in front of Kylan, he was back to having that crazed smile on his features while he observed everything around them, their surroundings immediately opening out into an underground lab filled with many grotesque images, not that Feather was phased. It didn’t look quite like the monsters they’d seen stuck in all those cages… rather, it looked like they’d skinned regular animals and were trying to convert their flesh to the white, shriveled monsters with overgrown teeth. Some of them were fully transformed, while others were only halfway with mangled limbs hanging off the sides of them, looking entirely irregular as Feather glanced past.

  “Wow! How fascinating,” the man cooed when he went to examine a large fish hung up by its tail, part of its skin being overgrown by white flesh and black veiny membranes, jagged teeth jutting from part of its mouth to the point its lips could barely even be considered such. And Jayce, Achitha, and Eve felt resigned to merely watching when Feather went and wrapped a hand around one of the large teeth, before he jerked on it and ripped it out, black blood splattering and dripping across the ground as he smiled.

  “Is he... always like this?” Achitha asked slowly, not quite sure how to make the question sound any less rude than it did. But Cirrus only gave a defeated sigh, resigned to his fate as he kept watching Feather tinker manically with the sharp tooth. He couldn’t even blame her.

  “He was like this the entirety of when we were on Viscendant,” he responded lamely, Achitha giving him a look of sympathy as she turned around to watch Feather mess with the dead fish hybrid by poking it with its very own tooth, giggling all the while.

  “I see…”

  Though the man they were talking about was completely oblivious, grinning from ear to ear as he threw the large tooth around in his hands. “Wow. I wonder who’s doing this, hm? All of these creatures here look to be prototypes, but… my gut tells me it’s more complicated than that,” he hummed, carefully taking the long, razor-sharp tooth as he pricked his finger with one end, digging the tip of the tooth into the pad of his pointer finger as he dug it all the way through to the other end beneath his fingernail.

  “Hey, what are you doing?! Don’t do that,” Cirrus instantly scolded, rushing forward to grab the tooth away from Feather, who only glared at him and hugged it to his chest.

  “Shut up! I’ll do what I want! This is a necessary experiment!”

  “What are you talking about… give it here,” Cirrus demanded, reaching over him as Feather turned his back around, the blond beginning to screech as he tried to wrestle away.

  “This is a necessary experiment! It doesn’t even hurt, you bully!” he screamed, jerking to elbow Cirrus in the stomach as the prince just stood there and took it, grabbing onto Feather’s wrists to try and stop him from stabbing himself. The prince really didn't understand how he was the bully in this situation, the mad blond continuing to dig the tooth into his finger and across his palm while he yelled. “I need to learn if it’s the monster’s biting people that turns them into monsters, or if it’s something else! I need to know what caused you to start turning into a monster back there, because I hate the fact that I have no fucking clue why it happened!” he protested firmly, turning around to bite Cirrus’ wrist as the prince winced, dropping him to process what Feather was trying to say.

  “So… so you’re experimenting on yourself?”

  “Yes.”

  “...”

  “...but you—”

  “But what’ll happen if you turn into a monster?! Who will heal you then?!” Eve spoke up angrily, stomping herself in between them as she snatched the large tooth from where Feather had lodged it inside his hand, red blood splattering across the ground that contrasted greatly with the black that speckled the majority of the floor.

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  “What do you mean? Of course I’ll just heal myself.”

  “How will you heal yourself if you’re a monster?!”

  “Well… it’s not like I’ll turn into a monster right away,” Feather frowned, not liking how he was being bombarded as he backed away like a cornered cat. “Your body needs time to process the black blood and for the black blood to fully fuse with your system. There should be plenty of warning signs while you’re still a sentient human to let you know you’ve been infected. Kind of how Cirrus was having trouble breathing and his saliva had turned black, but he hadn’t actually made any real transformation yet and still had the ability to talk, you know?” Feather babbled, clearly trying to defend his actions as he raised his bloodied hand. “And I don’t care if I get hurt! This much is nothing! But I don’t want any of you to have to risk your lives, okay?! Now let me try the second test, sticking it into my throat right where Cirrus had been bitten that one time—”

  “Are you trying to kill yourself?!” Eve screamed at him, throwing the tooth at Jayce to guard it as the man caught it with one hand.

  “Ahhh you wouldn’t understand, I need to stab myself in an artery to fully finish the experiment! I need to figure out the cause of this, otherwise I won’t be able to prevent it before it happens in the future!" Feather cried, immediately going back to another skinned monster as he reached for yet another sharp, pointer tooth, before Achitha reached around behind him and dragged him away.

  “I appreciate your intentions, but you need to behave yourself! Self-injury is not something we can condone!” the woman scolded, Jayce not even batting an eye as he stared at the tooth in his grip.

  “Hm. You know what. I think I could condone it. If we’re talking about Feather.”

  “Shut up, Jayce!” Eve pointed at him, Cirrus looking around at the group in fret as Feather kept wrestling in Achitha’s grip.

  Kya wasn’t sure what to think watching all of this unfold. She knew her leader was capable enough to stab himself and then heal the injury no matter how large or severe it may be in no time at all, and these people really were making things too big of a deal. Ah, but everyone seemed to be so worried about him, excluding Jayce… that was nice to see. Feather didn’t have many friends, so the fact he was getting along with these people at all was a feat. But still, as his subordinate, she knew she should probably do something to help her leader, and while no one was paying attention to her, she reached up and snagged another tooth from the same fish and promptly stabbed the artery in her arm, the sharp tooth piercing through the flesh of her elbow, not even batting an eye when everyone suddenly turned to her, freaking out.

  “Are you all a bunch of suicidal maniacs?!” Eve screamed right as Feather managed to wiggle out of Achitha’s grasp, bounding over to Kya with a happy smile.

  “Oh wow, Kya, that’s a perfect stab! And right in the artery! Let me check you out before I heal you so you don’t bleed to death!”

  “Take your time, boss,” Kya nodded, subtly using her second and most powerful concept to control her blood flow and regulation. The concept of blood… it had been passed down through her family for generations, and she’d always been a prodigy. And yet, she’d thrown her entire life away… all of her accomplishments, her family’s pride, her work and her brother… to be by Feather’s side and to protect him. Because she believed that was the right thing to do. So as Feather carefully picked at her open wound and examined how the tooth impacted the blood that touched it, he eventually took the tooth and threw it away before healing her arm, looking greatly disappointed with what he’d discovered… or lack thereof.

  “Man. It didn’t even turn your blood black. I guess it’s not the teeth that does it…” he pouted, sulking as he retracted from Kya and remembered to heal his own hand, Cirrus gaping at him with greatly disturbed features as Kya gave a casual response.

  “Boss, what were you thinking it’d be like? Vampires?”

  “That was a theory I had, yes! But I was wroooong…” Feather whined, purposely wobbling on his feet as he threw his weight onto Kya, wrapping his arms over her shoulders while he hid in the crook of her neck. “I’m trying to think back to what had caused it… I was thinking it might be because the black blood got into an open wound, but that never actually happened to Cirrus… even after he got attacked and severely injured, it wasn’t like the creature was covered in the black stuff, and then he immediately fell on top of me and teleported us away… it’s not like black blood got into his system during any of that… it’s true he already had some on his clothes, but comparing that small amount to the large doses I found in his body is very unlikely… something had to have been injected into his bloodstream, but the questions are how and when did they do it?” he babbled on, rocking his head on Kya’s shoulder over and over again before he suddenly sat up, taking hold of her with wretched aggression as he announced fiercely, “Kya, if I don’t figure this out right now, I’m going to kill myself! At least dying would feel better than not knowing anything, wahh…” he whined, shaking her shoulders back and forth before she made a sudden action, and lifted a finger to scratch him right under his jaw.

  It was such a small movement. Her pale fingers moved right under his chin to give a little, gentle itch, and it was almost like a sudden switch had been flipped in Feather’s mind as he instinctively calmed down, obediently letting Kya run fingers through his long blond curls. If he were a cat, he would most definitely be purring, Cirrus thought, and he didn’t know why he found it so cute when Feather seemed to melt.

  “There you go, boss. There’s no need to get so worked up. We’ll figure it out, I’m sure,” Kya comforted, Feather nodding into her hand as he let out a content sigh.

  Although, all of a sudden, those comfortable words were pierced through by an odd presence none of them had encountered before. Playful words came out of a stranger's mouth, a man with purple hair, bronze skin, and golden eyes, whose appearance in the room had come randomly and undetected, instantly putting everyone on their guard. “Ah? Why not let him go so worked up?” the stranger laughed, right in the middle of them as he grinned towards Feather. “I think he should just go ahead and kill himself. It would save me a lot of work.”

  Immediately, without a moment’s hesitation, Cirrus and Achitha were moving in sync as ice exploded towards him with poison coating it from top to bottom, Jayce stepping in front of Kya and Feather to protect them as Eve prepared to back up the duo in any way she knew how. But the tall man with his shiny, bronze-toned skin and dazzling eyes that looked like they were made from golden apples merely smiled before his body morphed and shifted into a hawk, flying up and away from the poison-covered ice as it flapped around the room, a human’s voice still booming from it as it gave a loud laugh.

  “Hahaha! Don’t worry, I appreciate your enthusiasm and have no intention to kill you just yet! If you want to know more, just follow me!” the man in the form of a hawk laughed gleefully, before he quickly flapped his wings and flew down a hallway, turning a corner as Feather’s eyes locked on.

  The blond shoved himself off Kya and took off in the direction of the hawk, not a moment to spare as Cirrus took off after him, Jayce and Achitha the fastest on their feet as Kya took Eve by the arm and started pulling her along.

  “Cirrus! You said you saw two lifeforms in this facility, right?!” Feather called out from the lead, his shining blue eyes still pinned on the flying hawk that was leading him around as he barked out his order. “Go find the other one! Figure out what they’re doing and don’t let them escape! Take Eve and Jayce with you! Kya, Achitha, I want you two to help me over here!”

  Though, Achitha’s first reaction was to hesitate at the thought of being separated from her prince and leader, the very person she was supposed to protect and support above all else. But Cirrus merely gave her back a firm push, urging her forward before he halted in his run to face Eve and Jayce, not another word needing to be said between them as she rushed past to follow the mad blond in front of her. Because she understood what Cirrus was telling her to do, and she understood that Feather’s insights had always been spot on up until this point. It meant Feather needed her for something, and it also meant that Cirrus was telling her to serve and protect him as if he were the one she'd sworn to serve. So as she kept running, right beside Kya as the two women followed their crazy leader, they turned corner after corner, getting deeper and deeper into the underground labyrinth… but that was okay, because Achitha only needed to see something once to memorize it. The way out was clear in her mind, and she would not be trapped because of this. And Feather was aware of that… and that innate ability was the exact reason he needed her with him.