“You shot me in the ass.”

The look on Dick’s face was an odd mixture of anger and amusement—amused that I had shot him for real and anger that it had been in one of his favorite body parts.

“I mean you couldn’t aim for anywhere else?”

“You wanted me to shoot you in the head? There aren’t a lot of places you can inflict that type of wound and not kill someone, you know.”

“To be fair, he probably uses his head a lot less frequently than his ass,” Cash interjected.

“You’re damn right I do!” Dick agreed, unashamedly.

“She also fondled you while you were unconscious,” Vomero further instigated, smirking.

The look of outrage on Dick’s face intensified.

“You fondled me?!”

“Aaand here we go,” I sighed in exasperation.

“And you couldn’t even wait till I was awake to enjoy it?”

Snickers erupted from the other occupants of the room.

“I was not fondling! I was healing the wound so you didn’t bleed out!”

“I’m with Skye on this one,” Ryuuk offered his support. “All she did was cup yer backside eeeever so gently. Then she pumped her magic juju into yer delicate parts until they were good as new.”

Everyone in the room stared blankly at Ryuuk for the longest moment, unsure if he meant to be making the situation worse or genuinely thought he was helping.

“What?” he said.

“Sounds like fondling to me,” Cash said, slapping a hand down on Ryuuk’s shoulder.

The room erupted in laughter. I simply groaned in consternation.

“Please stop helping, Ry,” I said.

It had been about half a day since Dick wolfed out on everyone. He was recovering in what passed for a sick bay on the ship. Healing was a concept Light was very familiar with, so getting the little Ancient to set up a medical facility in one of the empty laboratory rooms hadn’t been too hard. Although it certainly wasn’t the most advanced med station I’d ever seen, it seemed to serve our basic needs just fine.

“So, nobody’s going to talk about how Dick turned into a feral dog and nearly mauled Skye to death?” Vomero asked.

“What about me?” Cash said. “I was there; I was almost mauled.”

“More like scratched up a little,” Vomero argued.

“Hey, I can’t help it that I’m stronger and better than Dick even at his most dangerous,” Cash replied.

I glanced at Dick to see if he’d take the bait, but he was staring solemnly at me, one hand patting Light’s head as he stood next to the tall medical bed. The teasing glint of earlier had faded from his eyes.

“I don’t remember any of it,” Dick said, seriously. “The last thing I remember was going to sleep, but...”

He was quiet for a moment as we waited for him to finish. Finally growing impatient, Cash prompted him to continue.

“But what?”

“This isn’t the first night I’ve felt like I lost time. It’s been happening for a few days.”

“What do you mean ‘lost time,’” I asked.

“Like one day I woke up in a different place than I remember going to sleep. Another day, I was in the shower one minute but then found myself in bed the next.”

“The equipment we have here on the ship can’t really scan for your type of DNA transmutations,” Vomero said. “Maybe when we get to Rodan, we can find someone to investigate things more thoroughly.”

“I’m thinking it has to do with that Lycan tooth you bought in New Horizon,” I said. “I’ve heard the legends and whatever that was you turned into fit the description. Have you ever absorbed a DNA you couldn’t control?”

“That’s just it, I never absorbed this one. Everything has been so chaotic, and I didn’t want to test out an uncertain transformation without some time to get used to it.”

“Maybe it’s just cause you’re wearin’ it round yer neck?” Ryuuk added.

Dick looked down at the Lycan tooth dangling around his neck. He reached up with one hand, yanked it free and held it out. Vomero grabbed a containment unit from a nearby storage locker and let Dick drop the necklace inside. He sealed it and placed it back in one of the locked storage cabinets.

“It couldn’t hurt to separate you from it,” Vomero said. “I don’t really know if it will make a difference if it somehow already got into your DNA.”

“In the meantime,” Cash said. “I’ve formulated some of these for everyone.”

He held out several auto-injectors, each loaded with a vial of pink liquid.

“It’s a heavy sedative, fast-acting. It should knock Dick out in his beast-boy mode if we should have this problem again. I want everyone to always carry one on them.”

Dick nodded.

“Until I figure out what’s going on and how to either stop it or control it, it’s best to take precautions.”

We each took one of the auto-loaders. Then one-by-one, the room emptied until only Dick and I remained. Even Light had wandered off in search of food.

“Tria says Light doesn’t actually need food to survive,” I said, shaking my head as the little tyke bounced out of the room. “It just likes the taste of it.”

“Speaking of surviving,” Dick said, grabbing my hand to stop me as I turned to leave, “Skye, I’m sorry I hurt you.”

I wanted to make a flippant remark about how I’d hurt him worse, but I could tell from the look in his eyes that attacking me against his will truly disturbed him.

“That wasn’t you.”

I said it firmly in a tone designed to reassure him.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

“I know you, and that wasn’t you.”

He was still holding my hand and gave it a gentle squeeze, his eyes still focused on my face.

“I know you could have stopped me—”

“I did stop it, whatever that thing was.”

“And nearly died in the process trying to go easy.”

I let out a small snort of disagreement.

“Two flesh wounds hardly counts as nearly dying. Don’t be dramatic.”

“Cash told me he got there just in time to keep me from ripping you apart.”

“I blew a hole in you. You nearly had to bleed out before we could subdue you. Yet, you’re worried about a little discomfort and wounds that are already healing?”

He used our linked hands to yank me closer to him. I winced in pain as the gashes in my back had not yet healed completely. Depleted after keeping him alive, I had only been able to mend the flesh tears on my back, but full healing would take a couple more days.

“Stop playing, Skye. I can see you’re in pain. You don't hide it very well, especially from me.”

I pulled my hand out of his and paced a few feet away from the bed where he lay on his side. I recognized that his words were true. I could have escaped relatively unscathed by just killing the beast at the start. Without Cash’s help, I could be the one in the med-bay, not Dick.

“In my right mind, I’d never do anything to harm you, but I can’t control this. Hell, I can’t even remember any of it, much less control it.”

“So, what? Are you going to ask me to kill you next time just so I don’t end up with a few flesh wounds? Then you don’t know me, at all.”

“I would never want you to trade your life for mine.”

Finally, I turned back toward him with a frustrated sigh.

“But you did trade your life for mine. Remember?” I said, recalling how Dick stepped in front of me to take the full force of Matthew’s miasma attack. It had legitimately killed him. “It took a miracle child with godlike healing abilities plus an ancient relic powerful enough to hold up an entire planet’s worth of islands to bring you back. So, spare me the hypocritical lecture.”

He sighed heavily, realizing he was fighting a losing battle.

“Fine. You don’t have to kill me, but, Skye, you don’t have to save me either. Let me be the dumb idiot sacrificing his life for someone else. If it comes down to helping me or saving yourself, please just keep yourself safe because I don’t want to wake up from one of these episodes to find out you died as a result. I’d rather not wake up from one, at all.”

I stared stubbornly at him for a long time before relaxing my stance and conceding.

“I wasn’t trying to get myself killed, Dick. Trust me, I’m an Outlaw. We always look out for our own interests above anything.”

I was quiet for a moment as I thought more on what he had said.

“And I know what that type of guilt would feel like. It would never be my intention to leave you like that.”

I threw him a small smile.

“Although, I don’t think if you’d have seen yourself looking all grotesque and dog-like you’d have wanted me to leave you like that either,” I teased.

He chuckled, letting the gravity of the moment lift.

“How did you even know it was me?” he asked. “Cash said I was damn-near unrecognizable.”

I paused, remembering my dream. I hadn’t had time to think on it before, but it had been an unusual dream.

“I dreamt it,” I said and filled him in on how the dream had turned from memory to nightmare to reality.

“You saw me transform in your dream?” he asked incredulously.

“Well, I can’t really know if it’s exactly how you turned since we’ve never seen you do it, but it was uncanny. Almost like a premonition or warning my dream state was trying to give me.”

“What was it like? The transformation, I mean. What was it like in your dream?”

“Painful,” I said, giving him a rueful look. “It looked painful.”

He sat in contemplative silence for a moment before shrugging.

“I guess it’s a good thing I can’t remember it, then. My normal transformations aren’t painful, at all. In fact, it’s the opposite. There’s an almost euphoric rush that happens whenever I switch forms.”

“Maybe it’s because you’re not doing it yourself.”

“Like it’s against my will, so it hurts?”

“Or like you’re not able to guide the transition into a more natural pathway that is pleasant instead of painful.”

“Yeah, that would make sense. Maybe...”

His brow furrowed while he thought on that for a moment. I watched as an array of emotions played out on his handsome features, thoughtful, skeptical, hopeful, and determined. Finally, I could not contain my curiosity.

“Dick?” I prompted.

“Yeah, sorry,” he said, snapping out of his revelry. “You’re right that transforming is very intentional for my kind. That’s why the more I practice with a form, the more easily I can hold it and the harder it is for something to knock me out of it. Willing my DNA to completely change itself, the shape of my body to bend and become something else, requires a deep familiarity and awareness of myself, right down to the molecules. At least that’s how it is for me. When I transform, it’s like I can feel every cell in my body and am able to coax it into a different configuration.”

“So, it’s a mixture of both the Lycan transforming you against your will and not knowing how to complete that transition efficiently.”

He nodded.

“Most importantly, it reminds me that I truly am familiar with every cell in my body. So, with enough effort and focus, I can figure out what feels off about me, now.”

“That would at least help you figure out whether you’re still a threat we need to monitor or not.”

“It’s going to take some time,” he sighed. “It’s not as easy as loading a virus scan on your data pad.”

“Well, you’ve got some time. Your ass cheek needs to heal and Rodan is still a couple cycles away. In the meantime, I’m sure Vomero will be digging up all the information he can find about Lycan teeth.”

We grew quiet for a moment, each seemingly lost in our own thoughts. Finally, Dick spoke again.

“You were dreaming about your crew,” his words, though not posed as a question, invited further elaboration.

I smiled, eyes unfocused as I recalled the scene. I had been sharing tidbits about my old crew with Dick and Vomero. Both understood trauma and how it sometimes took time to work through. Remembering the fun moments shared with my crewmates helped to chase away those shadows.

“This one was about Cael,” I said.

“You haven’t talked about him much,” Dick said. “He was the pilot, right? Sexy type, I imagine? We all tend to be.”

He punctuated his self-aggrandizing statement with an unapologetic wink. I couldn’t help but laugh.

“I was glad to have him on my side,” I said. “I’d have hated to meet him back in his straight-laced days. He was the best pilot I’d ever met.”

I paused at his feigned hurt look, adding, “at the time” to which he smiled.

“Once a pilot for the ITE, he pursued and caught his fair share of rule breakers as a young agent.”

“Let me guess,” he interjected, “The job started feeling hollow and meaningless, not to mention all the politics and backbiting. Then a beautiful Outlaw waltzed into his life.”

I chuckled at his uncannily insightful description.

“Actually, that’s exactly it,” I said. “Although, I wasn’t the Outlaw who wooed him away from law and order.”

“Oh?” he teased. “What made you think I meant you? Wow, that’s quite conceited of you to assume, Skye.”

“You should think twice about insulting the woman who already shot you in the ass once,” I teased back, enjoying the banter.

I often enjoyed talking to Dick when he wasn’t trying to seduce me. It felt like he was someone I had known my whole life. Someone I could joke with, laugh with, fight with, and overcome hardships with.

You also enjoy it when he is trying to seduce you, don’t start lying to yourself, Skye.

“Cael only had eyes for Saphera,” I said. “I genuinely never witnessed two people who loved each other like they did. She and I were already thick as thieves when we met Cael. He had just ended his career with the ITE and was looking for some direction and purpose in his life.”

“He must have been one of the smart ones, then,” Dick said.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean that the ITE likes sheeple. People who are loyal and trustworthy but never question authority, never push back on all the unfair policies the ITE concocts that end up hurting more people than they help.”

“Yeah, that definitely wasn’t Cael,” I recalled. “He never talked about it, whatever it was that had burned him so bad at the ITE. He was never one to dwell on regrets.”

It’s ironic, thinking back on it, that my similar philosophy on regret had changed in part due to him. It was his death, and the death of my other crewmates, that caused me the deepest regrets in my life.

I looked up to find Dick studying my face intently.

“You’re supposed to be recalling a happy memory,” he reminded me softly. “Don’t start getting all melancholy, now, Skye.”

I looked away, trying to school my emotions into compliance. It was unnerving how he could sometimes read me so accurately. What happened to my prize-winning poker face?

“I know, it’s just—”

I was interrupted by the ship shuddering in a way that meant we were slowing down from near light speed. Almost simultaneously, the distinct boom and rumble of an object impacting the ship’s shields rang throughout the cabin.